Hikaru's Alias Go
by Forest Requiem
Summary: Hikaru a natural tomboy has been haunted by a Go obsessed ghost since she was born.Now with her mother's blessing she's finally allowed to leave the house by herself.Follow her and her adventures with Sai as they work towards their goal. NOTE:StrongHikaru
1. Prologue

Okay this is my first Fanfic so thank you for all those who are reading it.

It might be a little bad here and there and there probably are errors everywhere, but please bear with it. Thanks.

I hope you enjoy!

'_speech' _Sai talking or Hikaru talking to Sai in her mind

"Hey Mum, I'm leaving now."

"Make sure you come back in time for dinner."

"Hai."

Eleven year old Shindou Hikaru smiled to herself as she slipped on her sneakers. After months of begging, her mum had finally let her leave the house unaccompanied as long as she came home before dark, not that she was alone, but nobody knew that. She turned to her constant companion who was happily running around in circles like the time he first saw the goban at her Jii-chan's house.

"_Hikaru! Come on let's go Hikaru!"_

"Geez slow down Sai, not all of us can float up a hill and not get tired." She said irritably as she ran after him. Their destination was the train station that was 10 minutes from their house.

Fujiwara no Sai, her constant companion and resident ghost from the Hein era who has been haunting her since birth. Apparently Sai had been haunting a goban in Jii-chan's attic when Hikaru's pregnant mother came in contact with the goban, his spirit had somehow attached itself to the unborn child.

Sai's story began a thousand years ago. He was a member of the Imperial Court during the Hein era and was one of the two teachers who taught go to the Emperor and other members of the High Court. Unfortunately the other teacher said that there wasn't enough room for the both of them so a match was issued to see who should stay. During the match the opponent cheated, when Sai tried to stop him the cheating mongrel accused Sai of cheating. In the end Sai lost the match and was banned from the capital because everyone though he was a cheater. Not being able to live without go he committed suicide by drowning himself.

However the regretful ghost was unable to be at peace as he wanted to play more go. His soul was preserved within a goban for hundreds of years until a hundred and forty years ago a boy named Torajiro came across it and was able to see Sai just as she was able to. Sai played go through Torajiro and became the best, earning the title of Honibo Shusaku. Unfortunately Torajiro had an early death and Sai was once more sealed into the goban until one day someone would find him again. And that someone happened to be Hikaru.

Sai was quite feminine in appearance; to be truthful he actually appeared to be more feminine than Hikaru, though the fact that Hikaru herself was a natural born cross-dresser might factor into her androgynous appearance.

His tall and slender appearance was a stark contrast to her short scrawny build.

He possessed oceanic blue eyes, incredibly long velvety dark purple hair and delicate skin while she had jade green eyes, long brown hair with blond bangs and scarred skin from her activities as a kid. Sai had been the one who encouraged her to keep her hair long, saying that it would add to her feminine appearance. It was about elbow length and got annoying at times, but she endured.

The blond bangs, though made her look like a young delinquent, held significant meaning to her. When she was young Hikaru had found a photograph of her father who had bleached bangs in his youth. After discovering the photo Hikaru decided to bleach her own bangs. Sai, though regretful that she 'ruined her beautiful brown hair' said that it suited her and her mother couldn't help but smile and remarked that she resembled her father.

Hikaru's dad passed away before she was born. Because of this, her mum had to work hard to support them. When she was young her mother's work often brought her around the world where she lived in many countries and learned a number of languages. Hikaru's mum knew a lot of languages and was rather successful in her line of work and thought that it would also be beneficial for Hikaru to know a few languages as well, that and the fact that they had a rather expansive family that was spread across the globe that didn't speak Japanese.

Her mum worked hard and was often busy, so as a result Hikaru turned out to be independent. She never wanted to cause any troubles from her mum. When she was small and didn't realise that no one could see Sai her mum often worried about her. Hikaru had no friends always played by herself along with her imaginary friend. At the tender age of six Hikaru finally realised that Sai was a ghost and stopped talking about him out loud. After that her mum stopped worrying about her daughter's psychological problems.

During her childhood Sai had played a key role, she looked up to him like an older brother she never had, but as she got older she began to question who the older one truly was. When in go mode, which she dubbed, Sai was serious and slightly scary, but when off go mode he was a troublesome ghost who had a burning curiosity about the modern world. His childish curiosity and burning passion to play go had got her into many annoying situations in the past and would probably bring much danger to her future.

Despite the awkward situations she got into because of Sai she didn't mind anymore, or probably just got used to it. Sai's life goal was now her life goal and she would do anything in her power to help him achieve it. Actually when she was young her childhood dream was to beat Sai, but that dream now came second to achieving the Hand of God.

"Bing—Bong--The train will now be stopping at Tokyo station."

"C'mon Sai that's our stop."

The two got off the train and began roaming the streets of Tokyo city. Hikaru had only been living in Tokyo for about a year now and occasionally got lost down a one way street, though somehow she always managed to make her way home. According to her Jii-chan, who was delighted by the fact that his granddaughter showed an interest in playing go, there was a famed go salon near the train station that had strong players.

"Damn it, I don't see the salon anywhere," she mumbled angrily after wandering around for five minutes.

"_Just keep looking Hikaru, I'm sure it's around somewhere."_

Hikaru sighed. Maybe she should have brought a map or something. At this moment the wind decided to pick up and blow around the dress she was wearing. She grabbed the hem of her skirt and held it down, how did Sai talk her into dressing up like a girl today anyway?

"_Hikaru! Hikaru look over there!" _Sai yelled excitably like a child spotting a candy store and squeezing the life out of her as he hugged her, an action that Hikaru had become accustomed to whenever he got overexcited.

Sai dragged Hikaru to the go salon, almost squealing all the way. She smiled to herself at the sight of the ecstatic ghost, this was the first real time that he was really going to play go after all, not counting the random games in her childhood. When she entered the salon she was slightly shocked when she was greeted with the sight of a room full of crusty old men sitting in rows like at the cafeteria at school, playing go. These old men looked intimidating and scary, reminiscent to the cranky old man who she used to live next to in Korea that stole her soccer balls whenever they went over the fence.

"Ah, hello. Welcome."

Startled, Hikaru turned to the greeting and saw the young female receptionist of the place leaning over the counter. Her hair was short, brown and slightly curly at the ends.

"Er… Hi." Damn, she should've mentally prepared herself to make conversation with strangers before she entered the place.

"Write down your name here. Is this your first time?" The lady asked, who's name turned out to be Ishikawa Harumi when Hikaru glanced at the name tag.

"Yeah." she answered hastily and wrote down a fake name. Ever since _that _incident when she was a child she became a little paranoid about giving out her personal information and has since then been obsessed with giving out fake names.

"_Hikaru~! Hurry up Hikaru."_

Ignoring the wining ghost she brought out her wallet and tearfully forfeited the 500 yen fee. Hikaru was not normally stingy, actually she was, but if she was going to start regularly visiting go salons for Sai's sake then it was going to drain her allowance. Just as she coughed up the money the door behind her slid open and reveal a tall looming man who was oddly dressed up in traditional clothes. Long ago Hikaru had learned to come and accept strange and eccentric people, being somewhat strange herself, and with Sai being the most eccentric she couldn't really complain about anyone else. However, she couldn't help but stare. He had a face as hard as stone and narrow steely eyes. He looked to be somewhere around his 40's, though she wasn't sure.

There was something about this man, it wasn't the fact that he was dressed up traditionally like Sai or his cold eyes or that he was scary looking or even the fact that Sai had shut up as soon as he entered the place. He had a strange kind of aura that was similar to Sai, and speaking of Sai he had currently gone into go mode.

"_Hikaru…this man-- As Honinbo Shusaku, many great players challenged me. This man's intensity is the same as them. Please, let me play him."_

"Good afternoon, Touya-sensei." Ishikawa greeted

The man known as Touya-sensei bowed his head in response. "Good afternoon, Ishikawa-san. I hope things are going well."

Hikaru just stared at him while having an internal battle with herself. If she was going to start asking random strangers for games in the future she hoped they weren't all as scary as this guy.

"Ah yes, things are going well sensei." She replied happily. "I was just setting a game for—"

"Hey mister, you here for a game?" Hikaru rudely interrupted.

For the first time since he entered the man seemed to have noticed her and turned to her with a stone piercing glare, which she assumed was his natural look, but nevertheless it made her uncomfortable. Sai glaring at the man and the man glaring at her was quite nerve racking, but she was already got the man's attention, no point stopping now.

"I'm looking for someone to play with me, but it looks like there's no one to play. Since we're both available how 'bout a game?" She asked and flashed a smile.

"Natsume-san, Touya-sensei can't play go with you." Ishikawa snapped at her, obviously disapproving of her lack of manners.

Hikaru furrowed in confusion, what was the lady so mad about? Was this guy important or something? Well, based on the fact that he was similar to Sai in some ways maybe he was important.

"Sorry I was rude, but I don't see why you say that Ishikawa-san. I mean, this is a go salon right? And he came her to play go didn't he?"

Touya made a small sound that might've been the ghost of a laugh and stared at her with a calculating gaze while Ishikawa was momentarily shocked for some odd reason. Hikaru has a feeling that she was missing something here but didn't bother. Maybe she should have gone to a different salon. She had no idea people could be so stiff. After waiting for his response as the man scanned her he finally answered.

"Very well, we'll play in the back room. Ishikawa-san, please make sure that no one bothers us."

Ishikawa gaped as Touya strode passed her and led the young girl to the back room. Hikaru internally cheered for herself as Sai silently followed, why this man agreed to play some random kid she had no idea why, but a result was a result.

"What is your name?"

"Natusme. Natsume Tsubame. What's your name mister?"

"Touya Kouyou." He answered.

Touya exchanged greetings with fellow players as they noticed him walk by and were perplexed as to why the young girl was following him. He led her to a private isolated room with a single table, goban and two chairs. Touya took the bowls and placed them on opposite sides of the table before he sat down.

"How much do you know about go Natsume-san?"

Hikaru fidgeted a bit while in her seat. She was scared, no she was terrified. For the whole time Sai had stayed silent as he waited to play this man, he had to be good if Sai was acting like this, the strange intense aura that surrounded him combined with Sai's go mode was enough to make her want to run away. But she couldn't, she couldn't run away. Sai had waited patiently, or more like wined, for 10 years to play a proper game and when that time finally came they had encountered a man with skills on the same level as Sai. She wasn't going to mess up this chance for Sai, she couldn't. Right now she was representing Sai. This guy wasn't going to take her seriously if she acted like a scared little kid.

She took a deep breathe and braced herself. Her eyes mimicked the determined gaze that Sai's own eyes possessed as she pushed down her fears.

"I know enough to play." She replied stoically in a manner similar to Touya.

"Do you know the komi rule?"

She nodded her head and thanked god that her visit to Jii-chan's place had somewhat updated Sai's outdated go knowledge.

Touya took her nod with a nod of his own. "How much of a handicap would you like?"

"I don't need a handicap."

He raised an eyebrow at this. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"All right then, Please."

"_Please."_

"Please."

The pressure that Hikaru felt in the room became 10 times worse. Despite her serious exterior she was still nervous, held the stone with untrained fingers while Touya fluidly placed the stones on the board with fluid movements. Hikaru hardly knew how to handle go stones. When she was young and Sai would teach her go they had to play on paper or draw a grid on the ground and use whatever they could find as go stones, she often used flowers in the sandpit as her makeshift goban or just simple rocks.

Hikaru placed the stones where Sai directly them and watched as how Touya would counter the move. The game was intense. Sai had yet to adapt to the modernized go styles and bridge the hundred or so year gap. Black and white battled each other throughout the board, attacking what they were able to until they entered yose.

In the end Sai predicted that he would lose by a few moku and threw in the towel.

"_I have lost." _He said in a grave tone and bowed his head.

She copied him and bowed her head as well. "I have lost." She couldn't see his face, but she was sure she did not want to see his expression.

"Thank you for the game." He responded.

Hikaru felt her body shiver and go cold, it was the same feeling that she got when she stood at the stop of her roof and almost fell. Sai had lost, this was the first time that Sai had ever lost. Even though she knew his style was outdated she thought that he would win. From the stories that he often told her when she was young and those rare chances she got that allow Sai to play some random person, the belief that Sai was invincible was engraved into her mind. To her Sai was the strongest and ultimate player. But now, right in front of her, there was cold hard proof that Sai had lost his first game in possibly over a thousand years.

Touya was staring at the board and appeared to be in deep thought as well. She gave a sad sigh. Maybe this was a sign, a sign that Sai wasn't invincible, a sign that they needed to work harder to achieve their dream. This was only the beginning of the road after all, who knew that the beginning began with a large speed bump? Before she could start driving she had the read the road manual first, they had to adapt to the current style of go before anything else. The road was long, but she was going to work hard so Sai would never lose again.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the beeping of her digital watch. She glanced down to look at it and her eyes widened in shock when she saw the time. Five pm, it was already five pm? Time certainly flies by when you play go, or maybe she had spent more time before being lost then she thought. She glanced at Sai and saw that he was still in go mode, maybe he wanted to discuss the game with Touya, but she had to leave now or else her mum would take her head.

The screeching of the chair seemed to snap both go players out of their trance and all attention was now on Hikaru.

"_Come on Sai, you know what mum said. It's getting late."_

"Excuse me um… Touya-san, I have to go home now or else my mum will worry about me." She began squeezing her elbow out of nervous habit. "Thank you for the game, it was really good."

"Wait."

"Hm…?"

He paused for a moment, as if trying to carefully pick his words. "How long have you been playing go?"

"_A thousand years."_

"Erm… my whole life?" she replied, why was that a question? She remembered Sai saying that when she was a baby he had tried to teach her go, as if a baby could understand anything anyway. There was no way she could say a thousand years.

"You play well for someone so young." He said approvingly.

"Thanks…"

"Your style is old, but you play well beyond your years."

"Haha… really?" she replied nervously.

"Who is your teacher?" he asked, surely someone as skilled as her probably had a pro teaching her.

"I'm self taught."

He raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

It was unthinkable that a child no older then Akira had taught herself to a level that almost rivaled his own. This child was truly interesting, why would someone as young as her pick up go at an early age? Akira too had been playing go for his whole life, but he knew that without his guidance Akira would not be at the level that he is today, and that was no way near his level. It was no secret that go was not popular among the younger generations, so what was the reason behind her un-mentored old yet skillful play? He looked up from his musings to the nervous girl fidgeting in her seat, gone was her earlier confidence and air of experience and there replaced by an anxious child.

"Why is it that you play go Natsume-san?" For a moment he saw her eyes flicker to an empty space by her side before she replied.

Hikaru looked over to Sai when he asked this question. Why was it that they played go? They played go in order to reach the Hand of God, but is that really something a kid should say to an adult? When she was small she once told her Jii-chan that she wanted the Hand of God and he couldn't stop laughing for the whole day, saying something about 'kids and their imaginations'.

"_I play for the Hand of God." _Sai replied.

"I play for the Hand of God." She repeated.

Surprisingly enough Touya did not burst out laughing like her Jii-chan did, though it might be possible to imagine the stoic man in front of her laughing, he merely raised his eyebrows and the corner of his mouth twitched into something of a smile.

"It seems as though we have something in common."

"_Hikaru this man…"_

He rose from his seat and motioned her to follow. As he opened the door he came to a halt and turned to her.

"If we are reaching for the same goal then I'm sure one day our paths will cross again."

Sai smiled, _"Then I look forward to our rematch."_

She too smiled before repeating Sai's words. "Then I look forward to our rematch."


	2. Chapter 1

_Two Months Later_

The room was eerily quiet except for the occasional 'pachi' sounds of a go stone being placed. Everyone had their eyes glued to the game in front of them, not believing what was happening in front of their very eyes. It was a strange sight, the master of the salon playing an even game with a kid. Some laughed it off at first, thinking it was some sort of joke, but that all changed when they laid eyes on the game and for the first time saw the master struggling with the kid.

Pachi.

Pachi.

Pachi.

Pachi.

"I-I have lost." The owner mumbled in a shaky voice.

"What!?"

"No way!"

"Who is this kid?"

The kid in question rose from her seat and jumped in victory. "Yes! Cough up the money old man, I beat you fair and square and a deals a deal."

This remark earned her the scornful glares of just about everyone in the room, but the owner just laughed it off and motioned for everyone to stop glaring. "Boy, what's your name."

"Nishikawa Ichirou." She replied without hesitation.

"Well, Nishikawa-san, I hope we'll have the pleasure of having a re-match again someday." He took out twenty thousand yen from his wallet and gave it to her.

"Yeah I hope so too," she murmured and looked at the clock. "Would you look at the time, I've got to get home or I'm gonna miss my dinner. It was nice meeting you and thanks for the game."

Without waiting for a farewell the kid instantly rose from her seat and dashed out of the salon with break neck speed. Hikaru and Sai ran all the way to the train station and stopped only when Hikaru felt it was safe.

"_Hikaru~! we could've stayed a bit longer and played another person."_ Sai wined, he was currently shaking Hikaru like a ragged doll.

"No way Sai, we got our money and you just beat the strongest person there. Stay any longer and those men will start chasing us to get their money back."

"_But Hikaru~!"_

She sighed and just ignored him, having already gone over this routine several times. Two months had passed since they first started this routine. Two months had passed since their first game and they had gone a long way. Two months had also passed since, much to their surprise, they saw Touya Kouyou on TV and found out that he was the number one go professional in Japan. Ever since their first game Hikaru had been going around visiting go salons a few times every week to let Sai play, of course Hikaru played every now and then with the encouragement of Sai. Despite his needs to play go he enjoyed teaching and watching Hikaru as well.

Of course Hikaru was no armature when it came to go. Beside the fact that her stone handling was still sloppy Sai had said that she was overwhelming good considering her age, although Hikaru assumed he just said that to make her feel good.

Hikaru had been going around the several salons and alternating between cross-dressing as a boy and girl and giving out fake names. Nobody ever took her seriously at first, which was annoying, but after a few games everyone would suddenly become wary of the cocky kid and it somehow became their goal to know her name. Her natural athletic ability came into play here where she would run away from the angry old men demanding her name or their money back.

Regularly visiting salons was draining Hikaru's money and her dream of owning an actual goban were becoming bleak. To compensate for this Hikaru began gambling every now and then whenever they played, earning enough money to put away for the goban and to pay the unfair fees of the salons. She split her earnings into three ways, one to pay for salon fees, another for her goban fund and lastly her food fund. Sai at first disapproved of her gambling, but when he found out where all the money was going to he burst out into tears and hugged her like a teddy bear, preaching how lucky he was to have such a caring and considerate little sister to the only one who could hear him.

She glanced over at the crying ghost who was complaining that he wanted another game and gave a sigh. She checked her watch to see the time, if she left now and found a place there would still be time for one more game.

"Let's go Sai," she stood up and adjusted her cap which was currently hiding her long hair. "We'll visit that salon near the train station for one more game, and then go home."

Overjoyed Sai latched onto Hikaru as they walked to the salon where they met Touya Kouyou, maybe he'll be there again. As she entered the place she was greeted by the brunette receptionist whose name she had forgotten, meeting random people on a weekly basis made her a bad person with names.

"Welcome, is this your first time here?"

Thankfully the lady didn't seem to remember or recognise her.

"Yeah… Is there anyone around who can play go with me right now?"

"Of course, just write down your name here and your go level." She answered and handed her a clip board.

Hikaru wrote down the name Sakimori Takeshi and left the go level blank. What the hell was go level? She didn't have to write that down last time and the other salons didn't require her to write down her go level. The receptionist, noticing her predicament, laughed at her expression.

"What exactly do I write down for go level?"

"You write down how strong you are, how long have you been playing go?"

"_A thousand years."_

"Um… about two months..?" Well two months had been the time when she officially started playing go with other people.

"Two months? So you're just a beginner then."

Hikaru nodded her head and looked around. Everyone looked occupied, it didn't look like there was anybody to play Sai.

"_Hikaru look over there, there's a child your age that just finished a game."_

She turned to the direction Sai pointed at and saw a boy with strangely girly haircut wearing a strange school uniform, but who was she to judge people? The kid probably just finished a game and was cleaning up the stones.

"_Hikaru let's play that child." _Sai said excitably.

"Hey there's a kid!" Hikaru exclaimed a bit too loudly.

The kid in question turned around and noticed her when she pointed to him. "Uh…me?"

"Ishikawa—san," she dragged out her name as she glanced at the name tag. "Can I play him?"

"Well… that kid is…"

The kid walked over to Hikaru and smiled politely at her. Standing up close he was slightly taller than Hikaru, much to her annoyance.

"Are you looking for an opponent?" Hikaru nodded her head, it wasn't everyday she saw other kids in go salons. "Sure, I'll play you."

"But Akira-kun this kid…"

"Yay, lucky! Another kid," Hikaru cried out happily. "This is much better then playing one of those geezers." Maybe she was going over to top a little bit but she was honest to god happy that she wasn't going to play someone who looked as though they were going to have a heart attack if they lost.

"Let's go to the back to play. My name is Touya Akira."

"_Touya Akira? Is this child the son of Touya Kouyou?"_

"_Probably, how many people in this place have the last name Touya?"_

"I'm Sakimori Takeshi, I'm in the 6th grade."

"So am I."

"Wow, we're the same age."

Just as they were about to walk off the play they were stopped by the receptionist. "Hey, wait. You haven't paid yet."

Hikaru's smile faulted for a second and she slowly drew out her wallet. She was so happy about playing someone her own age she forgot to pay.

"This is his first time right Ishikawa-san? Let's give him a break."

"Well… If Akira-kun says so…" Hikaru watched as the receptionist's face turn a shade of red and she looked away. Pedophile?

"Thanks." She bowed her head and walked off with Touya.

Hikaru's eyes sparkled as she followed Touya, he had just saved her a few extra bucks, he was now in her good books, not that she had a good book anyway. They sat down on an empty row near the back and placed their bowls on the side.

"So, how good are you Sakimori?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm pretty strong."

"Not sure but strong?" Touya laughed at her, it was obvious that his opponent was just a beginner. "Why don't you put down 4 or 5 stones then?"

"_How insulting! I don't need a handicap while playing a child." _Sai fumed, damn Said and his go pride.

"_Sai they can't see you and probably think that I'm some sort of overconfident jock that can't play. Don't worry we'll show them."_

"I don't need a handicap," she replied like it was somehow unfair on him. "We're the same age."

Touya blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Well… Yeah… you're right."

Hikaru inwardly smiled. Success.

Some old guys who happened to hear her laughed loudly among themselves as though it was some sort of joke. "No handicap against Touya Akira? What a kid."

"_Let's go Sai."_

The two kids ignored the men and started their game. Hikaru was black while Touya was white. Her hands were still sloppy but with more practice she'll eventually get better. After a few hands Hikaru's eyes narrowed and she cursed in her mind.

"_Damn it Sai this kid is playing shidou-go with you. Maybe I should wear better clothes so people would actually take me seriously." _Hikaru was a little too carefree with clothes, she didn't really care what she wore. Her wardrobe consisted of hand-me-down clothes of both genders from various relatives. Her current attire looked more appropriate for playing soccer rather then playing go.

"_Don't worry Hikaru," _He reassured her. _"If he's planning to play shidou-go then I'll just counter the shidou-go with shidou-go. I'd like to measure this childs ability as well. His go is much more powerful then any opponent we've faced in the last two months."_

"_Whatever."_

The game continued to drag on as both sides played shidou-go, though from some of the reactions Hikaru saw on Touya's face he didn't realise that she was playing shidou-go as well, probably because her style was older. Some of the hands that Sai purposely put out were neither offensive nor defensive moves, it's purpose was to measure his ability. Every time she made one of these moves Touya would just stare at it with shock and took more time on his next hand, when he did this Sai would fan himself and chuckle a bit. Did Sai like watching the panicked expression on this kid? After a while Touya stopped playing shidou-go and actually played seriously, but it was already too late for him.

In the end Sai's shidou-go proved to be superior, no surprise there, and they won by two moku. Sai seemed satisfied and as was Hikaru. Touya was quite good, now she felt like playing him. Maybe it was the fact that they were the same age that made her want to play him now. Perhaps she would one day come here under a different disguise and try and play. The beeping of her watch told her that it was time to go and this time Sai did not complain as they left, satisfied with his last game for the day.

"Hey Touya thanks for the game, I have to get home now or else I'll be late for dinner."

She got up to leave but Touya made no motion that he even acknowledged her farewell or even her presence. He just sat there, staring at the board with blank eyes. Well she couldn't wait for him to snap out of his daze and decided to leave.

"Oh, finished already?"

Hikaru turned to the receptionist who was smiling at her.

"Yeah, gotta get home to dinner else my mum will have my head." She said pretending be tired. This receptionist seemed to like Akira and she wanted to get away before she found out that Akira had lost. "I'm a bit worn out."

"Here take this." Ishikawa handed her a flyer from a pile with a childish illustration of go. "This is happening next week. If you want, you can go check it out."

"Children's Go Tournament?"

"Strong kids from all around the country will be there."

"_Hikaru can we go and see this next week?"_

"_Sure, it's a free event so it'll save us money. Plus it's a nice change of environment."_

"Thanks, I'll be sure to check it out."

Ishikawa watched as Hikaru shoved the flyer into her bag as she ran out the door and jump a flight of stairs. She chuckled to herself.

"He was a weird kid."

The old man who had been next to her the whole time laughed as well. "To compete with Akira-sensei, he's about 50 years too early."

Their musings were interrupted by the commotion that the other occupants were making.

"What? He lost?"

"Did you lose Akira-kun?"

"Impossible! Akira-kun couldn't have…"

"By two moku?"

"The other kid had black!"

"That's impossible!"

"When I took a peek, it seemed like that kid was a beginner."

"Akira-kun's strength is near that of a pro! That kid couldn't have been a beginner."

"Wait a second what's going on?" Ishikawa asked as she came in to settle down the crowd. "Did you really lose Akira-kun? Because that kid said that he only started playing two months ago."

"WHAT!"

"NO WAY!"

Meanwhile Hikaru had just managed to jump on a train before it left. She leaned against one of the poles and panted lightly, she was glad that she made it in time or else she would've had to wait a while for the next train. For a second she thought she heard someone screaming in the background, but when she looked up and scanned the area she saw nothing but a near empty carriage.

"Did you hear anything Sai?"

"_I don't think so."_

"Oh well, must've been my imagination," she brushed it off and settled down in a seat and put her feet up.


	3. Chapter 2

The room was silent except for the sound of pencil's scratching paper. Hikaru's class was taking a re-test for social studies as over half the class failed the test last week, Hikaru being part of that half. Social studies as well as PE were her best subjects, but she somehow managed to score 8% on the test last week. That was all due to the fact that she spent the night before staying up late playing blind go with Sai, because of that she fell asleep during the test after answering only the first few questions.

Hikaru's grades weren't _too _bad, border lining on average. She excelled in anything related to ancient studies and PE, she had natural talent in those areas, being an energetic kid and haunted by a thousand year old ghost since birth did that to you. When she was young Sai found it important to teach her many things other then go. He had taught her things like ancient literature, calligraphy and many other things that nobles learnt in the Hein era.

But despite her barely passing grades she found it to be an achievement that she was passing. She didn't putting much effort into her work, because she'd rather play around and learn from Sai then concentrate in school, so the fact that she was passing even though she wasn't trying was something to be proud of. Maybe if she tried harder she could get stellar grades, but why would you need stellar grades in primary school?

"Alright everybody pencils down." said the teacher.

The response to that was many groans and whines coming from the students as they stopped writing and passed their papers along to the teacher. Ancient history was never really much of a popular subject in her class.

"How did you go on the test Hikaru?"

Hikaru pushed back on the chair and turned to her neighbour. Fujisaki Akari, her childhood best friend and a rather attractive female according to the boys in the class. Akira was everything Hikaru wasn't; tall, slender, pretty face and large eyes. The only thing Hikaru beat her in was the fact that she had longer hair then her.

"Well, I managed to stay awake. Hopefully I'll get good marks."

"Geez Hikaru you fell asleep during class because you were playing go the night before weren't you?" she chastised. If there was one way to describe Akari then Hikaru would describe her as a second mother. She was always looking out for Hikaru and looked after her, because of her paranoia problem, and she was grateful for that. She even supported her strange hobbies like cross-dressing and playing go.

"What Hikaru plays go?"

"No way!"

"Hikaru is? I can't believe it. What are you thinking?"

"Why didn't you tell us?"

The boys in her class shouted and began interrogating her. Hikaru was somewhat semi-famous in her class for being an extreme tomboy and her cross-dressing ways. Thankfully there wasn't anything in the school rules against cross-dressing and the teachers had nothing against her as long as she passed. Everyone already knew that she was a girl, but because of her tomboyish behaviour the boys often saw her as one of their own.

"Geez, it's not like I kept it a secret or anything. What's it got to do with you guys anyway?"

"What? How can you say that Hikaru? What about soccer?"

"Just coz' I'm playing go doesn't mean I'm not playing soccer."

A nearby boy grabbed her and gave her a noogie while yelling about her being a traitor. Akari just laughed at Hikaru and she sent her a laser glare. Sai, who had been watching the whole exchange laughed from behind his sleeve.

The following Sunday Hikaru was dressed up as a boy again and visiting the Children Go Tournament. The tournament was a sight to behold, Hikaru gasped as she saw so many children playing with such serious faces. The atmosphere was so thick that she actually found it hard to breathe. Hikaru loved go, but the way that these kids were playing, with so much anxiety and pressure just seemed to ruin the game for her.

"Hey, Sai… this is really incredible."

"_Yes, yes, so many children." _Sai blushed from excitement and smiled. _"These children have the same passion for go that I had a thousand years ago."_

"But the way that these kids are playing…" Hikaru glanced around and spotted a kid who just cried because they lost. "They look like they're in pain, they may play with passion but I don't see the love or enjoyment in the go at all."

"_Hikaru…It's something that I still have yet to teach you, these children are playing with the drive to win."_

"Drive to win?" she asked confused. She was about to question him further when he directed her attention to a certain game.

"_Oh look over there Hikaru look at that board."_

"Hm…?" she turned around and walked up behind one of the kids playing. The game in front of her was an intense and complicated match between two boys a bit older then her.

"_Can you solve the problem Hikaru?"_

"Erhm…." She studied the board for a few seconds until the answer clicked in her mind. "1-2 right?"

"_That's right Hikaru." _he said cheerily and she smiled a little.

Unfortunately the kid playing didn't see that hand and played a move one space lower. With that done she was about to go around with Sai and see if there were other life or death situation problems that she could solve until---

"Hey you!" a man yelled and grabbed her shoulder.

Acting on pure reflexive instincts Hikaru jerked away and kicked him in her shin. The man crumpled to the ground and glared at her.

"That hurt kid! What are you thinking?! Don't interfering with the match, this is a serious event!" the man yelled in her face with spit catapults flying out of his mouth. He once again grabbed her and attempted to pull her to some unknown locations

"Dude, what are you talking about?" she cried angrily as she tried to get out of the man intense grip. If he wasn't going to let go then she'd just have to kick him where the sun didn't shine. "I didn't do anything."

"Don't lie, I saw what you did. You were standing behind this contestant and told him where to go next."

By now everyone was looking at the spectacle the two were making out of themselves. Man this was embarrassing.

"What are you talking about? I don't even know this kid, I was just talking to myself. Besides I said 1-2 and he placed his stone on 1-3 you freaking pervert now let go of me."

She kicked him in the other shin and was about to make an escape until she was grabbed by another person, a strange man in a white suit wearing glasses. Boy did these people like abusing little kids.

"I'll take things from here Mori-san," said the man in the white suit.

Hikaru was fighting against the man and wondered what would happen if she kicked this guy in the privates. He was wearing some sort of red ribbon saying he was special, maybe security guards would go after her.

"Ogata-sensei, this kid just interrupted the game." The man Hikaru now dubbed as pervert said.

"You're the one who interrupted the game you bloody pervert!" she yelled. She was really getting tired of being manhandled by these people. "All I did was talk to myself and you had to make a bloody big scene out of it."

Hikaru was handed back to the pervert as he dragged her off to the back somewhere with Sai yelling at the guy to let her go.

The white suited man massaged his temples and sighed, who knew being at a simple tournament could be so tiring. He then turned to the kids playing. "Can you two tell me what happened?"

The boy who just placed his stone on 1-3 answered. "I put my stones here and then suddenly this man grabbed that kid. I didn't know why he grabbed him but he said that he was interrupting the game. The kid before just said that I should've placed the stone on 1-2 instead…" The participant paused for a minute and then finally realised his mistake. "It would've been better if I put it on 1-2."

"You only notice it just now?"

"Yeah…"

The man studied the game for a few minutes. The shape was fairly difficult, even a pro would have to take some time to figure out the problem.

"Ogata-sensei," the man turned around to the official who was whispering to him. "Because of the interruption it seems they will have to start the match over again."

"Yes, I suppose they do." He said in a disinterested tone. All this trouble was giving him a headache.

"Was that child that was taken away a participant?" he asked no one in particular.

"No he was not!" shrieked a female voice. The owner of the voice was a plump woman who was probably the mother of one of the boys. "He's not involved at all, he wasn't even wearing a nametag. I was watching, he came from somewhere on the other side and was looking around. He took a glance at my son's board and then was about to leave until that awful man came and ruined the match."

This certainly caught the man's attention as surprised flashed across his face for a brief moment.

"What did you say? He only took a quick glance at the board?"

* * *

Hikaru, who had been dragged off to some office filled with trophies, was having a yelling match with the dubbed pervert and trying to explain what happened to the guy who she assumed organized this event.

"I'm telling you, nothing happened until this pervert grabbed me and started yelling at me!"

"_That's right, it wasn't Hikaru's fault. She was only answering my question."_

"Be that as it may it is wrong to make a comment when a match is in progress. I admit Mori-san is at fault here but be careful of what you say next time." The official admonished. "With that settled I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave this event."

"Sure-thanks—bye." Hikaru dashed out of the room and ran down the hallway with the speed she used when running away from angry old go players.

"Sai this is the first and last time that we're ever attending any go event. Geez." She mumbled and scowled.

"_But Hikaru I think you did really well with the problem," _Sai commented in an attempt to cheer her up.

"Really?" her eyes lit up.

"_Of course," _he preened. _"Our go if getting stronger everyday."_

Hikaru smiled and was about to say something until she run head first into something hard and became well acquainted with the floor. Sai gasped and she looked up to see who she had run into and then gasped herself. Looming over her was the disgruntled figure of Touya Kouyou a.k.a. Touya Meijin who was staring down at her. She saw something flick in his eyes before he offered a hand and helped her up. Even though she was dressed up as a boy maybe he recognised her, blond bangs were very distinctive after all. Sai had gone into go mode while Hikaru was trying to explain clearly in her mind to Sai that she couldn't just suddenly challenge him out of the blue, especially now that she found out that he was the number one player in Japan.

"You should be more careful." He commented bluntly.

"Ah yes, sorry about that." said replied anxiously and squeezed her elbow.

Touya Meijin's eyes narrowed a fraction when he noticed her nervous movement. "Have we met before?"

"Erm… I don't think so."

"Is that so?"

And with that he continued walking down the hallway and entered the room that Hikaru was fleeing from.

"_Hikaru I wanted to play that man again."_

"_I know Sai, I know. Trust me, one day I'll promise you I'll somehow let you play him again."_

* * *

"It sounds like we had some trouble." Touya said as he entered the room.

"Oh Touya Meijin," one of the officials noticed him come in and beckoned him to come over and look at the board that they were examining. "Please take a look at this."

Touya strode over to the table and saw a life and death situation on the board.

"Even a pro would need some time to solve this situation." Ogata explained. "But he just took a quick glance at it before solving the problem."

Touya's mouth twitched into a rare smile a murmured, "I see." Was the boy they were talking about the same one that just ran into him and bore a striking resemblance to the young girl he placed two months ago?

"To notice instantly the move to defeat this black, I didn't think there could be a kid other then your son Akira that could do something like this."

"And you let him go without getting his name?" Ogata admonished.

"I'm sorry," the official dubbed pervert muttered gloomily, who knew the kid he assaulted was so talented.

"That's alright," Touya Meijin deadpanned. "If he is that good of a player, sooner or later he will appear before us pros."

He grabbed a black stone and slammed it onto 1-2. _"Come at me, Natsume Tsubame"_

* * *

"Ar-choo." Hikaru sneezed and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "Damn, someone's talking about me."

"_Hikaru please use a tissue to wipe your nose." _Sai pleaded with disgust. _"Are you coming down with a cold?"_

"I doubt it."

"_I can't believe that you were kicked out of that go tournament. Hikaru~! I wanted to stay longer and watch the other children play. And I wanted to play against that Touya Meijin again." _Sai said in a miserable tone as he sulked in a corner.

"What's so interesting about watching a bunch of stiffs play anyway?" she asked in a bored tone while picking her nose.

"_Hikaru don't insult the--"_

She flicked away fake nose gold and pretended to check the time.

"There's still a lot of time before we have to go home..." she dragged out in a mischievous tone. "Rather then watch a bunch of kids' play I'd rather watch you play." She really was being too nice today.

Sai's face immediately lit up and he latched onto Hikaru in a blink of an eye, causing her to fall and earning many questionable looks from bystanders.

"_Yay! Let's go play Hikaru. Let's go play. But I can't play all the time, I want to see you play as well." _

Yup, Sai had turned back into his normal giddy little self. Giving a piggyback to the weightless ghost the two began their journey into the uncharted territories of the other side of town in search of salons they hadn't visited yet until—

"Sakimori!! Sakimori Takeshi!" a vaguely familiar voice cried out.

Hikaru and Sai ignored the yelling and remained in their own blissful state. Hikaru had brought a map with her today so if they ever had the unfortunate luck of getting lost she could rely on the map to help her. There were running footsteps behind her and before she knew it there was a hand on her shoulder again. Her eyes twitched in frustration, how many times was she going to get assaulted today?

Thanking her cousin for showing her self defense techniques she grabbed the arm in a firm grip and flipped the assailant over her shoulder. To her surprise the assailant was a kid, and not just any kid, it was none other than—

"Touya?!" she screamed as she slammed him into the ground.


	4. Chapter 3

"Sorry about that Touya. You see a lot of people have been grabbing me today and I'm a little on edge." She tried to explain in a panic as she helped the boy the same age as her into a nearby seat. "You're not seriously hurt anywhere, are you?"

"No-no I'm not hurt anywhere," he said in-between heavy breathes. Sweat was pouring down his face, he looked as though he just ran a marathon.

"_Hikaru you should be careful when you attack people, you really could have hurt the poor boy." _Sai scolded her.

"_Hey it's self defense," _she retorted _"It's his fault for grabbing me. Besides you can't blame me for acting like this after __**that **__happened can you?"_

Sai immediately quieted down after this, ashamed of himself. He could not blame Hikaru for her violent reactions whenever someone touched her, not after what happened.

"What are you doing here anyway Touya? You weren't in the tournament?"

"What?" he blinked in surprise and turned to look at Hikaru. "What about you?"

"Me? I was just checking it out until I was assaulted and then kicked out."

"Assulted?!" he yelled in bewilderment.

"Er… yeah, don't ask about that." she muttered quietly. "I didn't really like it that much anyway. It was really scary, watching all of those kids play with such serious faces."

"Scary? Haven't you ever played seriously before?"

"Huh?"

"Let me see your hands." Not waiting for her consent her grabbed her hands and examined her fingers, these were not the hands of someone who took go seriously.

Hikaru uneasily pulled her hand back after a few seconds, Touya sure was acting strange. She didn't like being touched but she couldn't exactly counter-attack every single person that touched her, especially some kid her own age who clearly had no bad intentions.

"Anyway it was nice seeing you again, but I've got to get going." She stood up and walked away, she was wasting valuable time sitting here talking to this questionable character.

"Wait, Sakimori!"

"Hm…?" Turning her attention back to him.

"Are you going to become a pro?"

"_Pro?"_

"Pro?!" She couldn't hold it in, what was with this question out of the blue? Out of some of the funniest things she'd ever heard. She had to get going, but she couldn't hold back her laughter. "AHAHAHAHHAHAHA."

Touya was shocked by her loud outburst and just stared at the laughing boy.

"Me? A Pro? Are you serious?" she asked through small giggles. "I've only just start playing and only just found out that professional go players even existed the other month. I doubt I'm pro material." _Although maybe Sai is. _She added in as an after thought. "Do you plan on becoming a pro?"

"I do." He replied seriously.

"Wow, you're still pretty young. Do pros make much money? You get money from winning tournaments and stuff right?"

"The prize money for winning the Meijin tournament is 28 million yen and the Kisei tournament is 33 million yen." He said in a monotonous voice.

"Wait a second, don't just start listing off all the tournaments." She said and lifted a hand as a sign for him to stop. Though inwardly she was surprised by the amount of money going through the games.

"_That's heaps of money Sai! Did you ever make that much money from playing Go when you were still alive?"_

"_Well we did get money for playing go in my time and I certainly did earn a significant amount of money back in Torajiro's time, but never that much," _Sai commented, impressed with the amount of figures as well.

"_Man if we actually win one of those we could actually buy a real goban and my gambling problems will be no more."_

Sai laughed. _"Indeed."_

"Ha… that's a lot of money pros make. If I go pro and win a title then all of my life problems would be solved." She joked.

Unfortunately Touya took her little joke the wrong way.

"Become a pro… for money?" he asked disbelievingly until rage flared up in his eyes and he stalked up right in front of her. "Become a pro for money?! Those words are an insult to all current pros. There is no way you could be a go player, a real go player would never say something like that!"

"_Oh geez." _Hikaru and her big mouth.

"_Erm… Sai? Did he take my words the wrong way or something?"_

"Just become a pro? Do you realise how hard that is? Perseverance, hard work, pain, disappointment. There are those who have risen above such despair yet still failed to reach the height that is needed. I have seen these players at my fathers side—yet you--- to prepare I have worked hard! Since I was small I have played hours of go everyday, no matter how painful I always played go!"

Hikaru and Said went bug eyed during Touya's speech. He _really _took her light-hearted words as a personal offense.

"_Sai does this kid love go or hate go? How is it painful to play?"_

"_I think he loves go. His whole life is about go, so he has seen both the good and the bad about it."_

"_Good and the bad? Go is just go, there's no bad side to it. It's not like he plays go until his hands bleed does he?" _she sighed in her mind. This new side of the go world that she recently discovered didn't seem all that great. When she vowed to explore the world of go she didn't expect to see all of these weird people who played go to the point of painful. "_I guess, he's real passionate about it… like those kids in the tournament. Painfully passionate about go."_

The cloud in the skies cried out as the thunder roared and the rain began to pour, somehow adding a dramatic effect to Touya's heart-felt speech.

"Let's play another game, right now." He declared.

"Huh?"

"I will become a pro. I will someday. If you can easily become a pro and win a lot of money then you can't lose to me here. Don't run away, let's play right now."

"Um… I'm not sure I'm--."

"_Hikaru," _

She turned to Sai and saw a serious expression on his face, wasn't he just as nervous as she was a second ago?

"_Go with this boy and play him, I'm going to teach you something about go I haven't taught you before."_

Hikaru nodded and allowed herself to be dragged off by Touya to that train station; his grip was going to leave a bruise later. His face was fierce as he dragged her down the platforms and she was too afraid to complain. His seriousness was border lining on freaky, why was he so insistent on playing Sai and why did Sai tell her to follow him. If it weren't for her unconditional obedience to her mentor whenever he was serious then she would have ran in the opposite direction.

The train ride between the two was silent. Hikaru was squirming in her disgusting wet jacket while Touya was gazing out the window and muttering strategies to himself, to the bystanders he looked a bit like a mental case and Hikaru tried to distance herself as far as possible so that no one would associate her with him. Once she got a far enough distance she crouched down on the floor and flicked a stray hair out of her face.

"_Sai what is it that you want to teach me that forced me to be here?" _she gestured to the seemingly half-crazed Touya.

Sai took a peek at the muttering Touya and turned back to Hikaru.

"_Hikaru what I want to teach you right now is pride."_

"_Pride?" _

"_Yes, pride. Pride in playing go."_

"_But, I love go. I'm not ashamed to play it or anything."_

"_I'm don't mean it like that Hikaru," _Sai laughed. _"I'm talking about the pride to win."_

"_Pride to win? You mean like the tournament that you were trying to tell me about?"_

"_Exactly Hikaru."_ He cried gleefully and waved his fan around in victory, happy that she was catching on.

"_But I don't get it, what's winning got the do with anything."_

"_Hikaru, from what Touya-kun told us his life is all about go. His father is Touya Meijin and ever since he was little he has done nothing but play go. Probably up until now he has met no equal. Praised as a child prodigy and the child of the Meijin he has many expectations to fulfill. At such a young age his skills as a go player has earned him much respect among his peers, that is his pride Hikaru—"_

"Bing—Bong--The train will now be stopping at Tokyo station."

Touya stalked out of the train without even looking back at her. Hikaru reluctantly followed him with a slower pace as he led them to his family salon. He wasn't even paying attention to her, if she ran now she could probably get away, but the feeling in her gut was telling her to stay. Rain continued to pour down as the two children walked like idiots down the street without any form of protection from the rain. Hikaru had a raincoat in her bag, but at this point it was too late to put it on. Everyone else around her had umbrellas and were bustling along the sidewalks, eager to get out of the rain. Some sent questionable glances at the kid stalking through the rain and the other one trailing along after him.

"_His pride was damaged when you beat him Hikaru."_

"_Me? I didn't beat him it was you. Besides who gets depressed over losing one game."_

"_Hikaru, Touya-kun has been playing go all his life. His whole life is devoted to playing it, and then suddenly one day he met a kid who he thinks only began playing two months ago and lost. How would you feel if you were in his shoes?"_

"_I guess I sort of understand now. But I've played go all my life as well, it's just that I only officially started using an actual goban two months ago. What if I tell him that?"_

"_Hikaru," _Sai said in his knowing teacher-like voice. _"That child is beyond reasoning now. It doesn't matter if you've played for your whole life or just started two months ago. I bet he's never lost to anyone his own age before, and now he wants to measure his skill."_

Hikaru stayed silent and followed Touya up the flight of stairs to his family salon. Would the owner of the place get angry if they got the whole place wet? But considering the fact that it was Touya's place anyway maybe no one would care. The squelching of her wet sneakers and Touya's mumbling was the only sound in the silent area, even the rain outside could not be heard. The traditional doors to the salon were slid opened and the whole place momentarily froze at the sight of the newcomers.

"Ah, welcome Akira-kun."

Touya just ignored everyone and continued to walk without slowing down his pace. "We'll be in the back."

Everyone's eyes trailed after the two children as they walked passed.

"Hey isn't that kid…"

"The one that beat Akira-sensei right?"

"So that's the one."

"Are they having a rematch?"

Soon everybody had abandoned what they were doing and followed the two to the back, not wanting to miss their teacher in action. Hikaru's growing nerves was almost at their limit as she sat down. The reason for her fake names and cross-dressing was to get away front frightening confrontations like these, and along with a few other things not worth mentioning. How could Akira not be bothered by the crowd that surrounded him? Hikaru's legs were shivering from a mixture of coldness and fear. The only good thing about this was that she was getting a free game out of it.

Touya took one of the stone bowls and passed it to her.

"_Sai are you going to play?"_

"_No Hikaru, you are."_

"_What?!" _she screamed in her mind and almost dropped the bowl. _"It was you who won against him last time, there's no way I can win. I'm not even that good."_

"_Hikaru this is exactly what I mean when I'm talking about pride to win!" _Sai said in a stern voice. _"Why is it that whenever you play for me your eyes go cold and your face hardens? Answer me." _

"_That's because I'm playing for you, so I'm representing you. Other people won't play seriously against you if they think I'm a joke."_

"_Exactly Hikaru," _Sai's voice softened as he praised her. Hikaru turned to him with her eyes half closed, hoping his face wasn't as scary as before. To her relief he was smiling warmly at her like a teacher often does when a student answers a question correctly and placed a gentle hand on her head. _"You refuse to let others to think lightly of you and play seriously for the sake of my pride. Now I want you to play for your own pride. I don't want you to face him with half-hearted intentions and have negative thoughts. I want you to play with the intention to win, to play with you all. I want you to play against him now because I believe in you, and I believe that you will win."_

"_Sai…" _A lone tear dripped down her face, but no one noticed it among the rain drops that adorned her face. He was right. She loved go, but she was unconfident in her skills. She always preferred to let Sai play, because she was unsure of her own skills. Was she really such a coward? Was she really afraid of playing her own games by herself? But now, after what Sai said, she wanted to play. She wanted to play, she was going to play. Play and win, because Sai believed in her. _"Let's do this."_

She ignored the crowd supporting Touya from behind and the fact that no one stood and watched behind her shoulder. It felt as though that everyone that was standing next to Touya was confident that he would win, while she who stood on the other side by herself would lose. But who cares about a room full of nameless old farts who believed in her defeat, they weren't worth jack. Unknown to everybody else in the room, Sai stood by her side, watching over her, and that was all she needed in order to win.

Her eyes hardened as she grabbed a handful of stones. She was going to show everybody, show everybody her unconfident go skills that Sai had taught to her and firmly believed in.

"Nigiri."


	5. Chapter 4

Thank you very much for the reviews!

I'm sorry for this late update, it's just that its exam week this week so I've _supposedly_ been trying to study, though I don't think just sitting there in front of your books and day dreaming counts as studying.

Anyway because of the exams I won't be updating for a while. Thank you for those who are reading and I hope you enjoy my story. I know it sounds kinda off here and there, (my english grades aren't that great)

Btw to answer 's question I'm thinking about pairings, (though its kind of a little too early to do it right now since they're only freaking kids right now, I mean seriously I always get disturbed when i read

mangas about kids being in love while in grade school and then actually experiencing all those weird feelings that you're not supposed to feel until you're in middle or high school) plus I'm also afraid that if i write

about love the story might degrade because i'm not good at writing love stuff, as you can probably tell I'm not much of a romantacist. Thinking about character fluff here and there, but not really sure about solid pairings.

* * *

Go had been a dominant part of Hikaru's life. She loved it and played with Sai every single day. But that was all she did. She never played anyone else unless Sai encouraged it, she had always just been content with playing him. But now she was actually playing someone else, and not just playing because Sai begged her in a whiney voice, but playing because she wanted to and that he believed in her. It was different, remarkably different from playing Sai. Everything was so different, so modern. It had been so long since she last played a serious game like this. Each hand that Touya played was exciting. She analysed everything, as was Sai, absorbing studying his go. Touya wasn't just any player, he was the best player that they'd come across in their whole two months of playing public go. But just because he was the best person they'd come across so far, didn't mean that she was going to lose.

* * *

A drop of sweat trickled down the side of Akira's cheek as he thought about his next hand. Everything he tried had backfired on him, he was backed into a corner with no where to go. This amateur, this person who had only started playing go two months ago and couldn't even hold his stones properly was beyond him. He wanted to win, he wanted to gain back his pride and try to convince himself that his last win was only a fluke. But nothing worked. No matter how aggressive he played or how hard he tried to defend his territory it was all for nothing. Sakimori, he… he could see through all of his hands. Even though his style was old, even though he was still a beginner, the flow of the game was completely dominated by him. Akira squeezed the stone in his hand, there was nothing, nothing else he could do.

"I resign."

* * *

Early dismissal, a time that all children loved, a time when children are given the chance to escape the evil clutches of school earlier then usual. As soon as the early bell went the children of the school scattered like wildfire. Hikaru was currently walking home with Akiri. Words could not describe that joy that was bubbling inside her right now. School lately had become a total drag, with graduation nearing the teachers were drilling the seniors more then ever. Akiri was telling Hikaru something about her mum and a stray cat, but she was only half listening. Despite her initial good spirits Hikaru's mood was slightly dampened as she walked down the familiar street to the train station near Touya's go salon. Touya was really upset after the game, worse then the first time when he lost to Sai.

"_Sai, did I really crush Touya's pride?"_

"_You didn't just crush it Hikaru, you sliced it to pieces."_

"_Way to make me feel better." _

"_I am serious Hikaru, you played an amazing game. That skilled boy was able to awaken the sleeping beast within you. He was good, but he had no chance against you when you played seriously."_

Despite his subtle praise she remained silent, maybe he should try a more direct approach in cheering her up.

"_It is dishonorable to feel remorse or pity for you opponents after you defeat them." _He said in a cold voice.

"_But-" _How could he say something so cold?

"_A duel between two samurais is a duel of pride. In the end only one will stay standing while the other falls. The one that stays standing cannot turn back to check if his opponent is alive or not or even help them afterwards. He must face forward and continue onward to honor his opponent."_

She thought about his words, why did all of his analogies have to refer back to when he was still alive? But still, he was right. She shouldn't dwell on it every time she saw someone lose, after all how many people had she seen Sai crush in the past few months? Then again, how many times did he crush he when she was young? The number was probably somewhere in the thousands, too much to count. But seeing someone being crushed, and then crushing someone yourself was a different matter entirely. Still, his words did make her feel better. After that game she felt happy, she wanted to play more go. In the future she would probably be crushing other people as well if she wanted to achieve their dream, there was no time to dwell on those who lost, it was up to them whether to get back up on their feet or not. She was sure Touya spirit wasn't entirely, totally, completely anilelated after her win… she hoped.

"_Since when were you a samurai? Girly men can't be samurais." _She poked fun at him, how could she pass up an opportunity to poke fun at him when the opportunity just presented itself.

Sai's serious face turned into a pout and his voice turned winy. _"That's mean Hikaru, I was being serious."_

Hikaru snickered and stopped at the crossing. Sai's pouty face was just so funny to see.

"_Mou—Hikaru~! I was going to say that I would proud of you when you won and that you were getting better, but now I don't think so anymore."_

"_What was that Sai?" _She turned to him with puppy dog eyes. Even though she was always making fun of him she felt a little burst of joy every time he praised her. His approval meant everything to her._ "Say that again Sai I didn't hear you~!"_

Sai turned his head and gave her the silent treatment. Hikaru just laughed and walked after him. Akiri turned crossly at Hikaru and flicked her forehead.

"Ittai! What was that for Akiri?"

"You weren't listening to me Hikaru!" she chided and pouted in a similar manner to Sai that just made Hikaru laugh again, confusing her in the process.

"What are you laughing at Hikaru?"

"Geez relax Akiri," she smiled sheepishly "I was listening to what you were saying, you mum chased a stray cat that stole your fish." Thank god for her childhood developed ability of listening to several conversations at the same time. "Anyway why don't we go somewhere and hang out for a bit? It's been a while since we've done that."

Akiri's eyes shone like the sun after she said that and Hikaru instantly regretted it. "Okay Hikaru! I know just the place to go. I wanted to take you there before but you were always so busy with your go. The food there is so delicious, it's definitely worth the money. And of course you're going to pay right Hikaru?" she asked with an evil glint in here eye.

"What?! Why?!"

"If you don't I'm going to tell Aunty about your gambling problems, besides you make a lot of money don't you?"

That's right, her mum didn't know about her little gambling addiction. It wasn't exactly a gambling addiction, frequently setting bets and being a bookie in her class didn't make her a gambling addict did it? Hikaru just sighed and nodded her head in defeat, who was she kidding, if her mum found out about what she was doing she'd kill her. Akiri cheerful dragged her down the street while Sai laughed evilly about karma. Little did Sai know that spending all her money on food for Akiri and her would dig into her go fund, she chuckled to herself, she'll drop the bombshell on Sai after they finished eating.

The two chatted happily as Akiri excitedly told Hikaru about the menu at the café they were going to and her mouth began to water. It was no secret that Hikaru's weakness was food and that her gluttony knew no boundaries. Her lunches alone at school could feed the whole class, although the class was kind of small.

Everything was going great, great until the appearance of the man with the glasses in the white suit.

"Hey you!"

The two kids turned around as the man came running towards them.

"It is you!" He shouted and grabbed Hikaru's arm. "Please! Come with me, there is someone who wants to meet you."

Without waiting for a reply the man kidnapped her in front of Akiri and dragged her towards Touya's salon. Damn, her persona as Sakimori Takeshi was creating unnecessary problems for her. She should've taken the other root to the city today. She struggled in his grip as he dragged her like a dead body up the stairs that she had walked up just a few days ago. This man got lucky last time, she never got to opportunity to kick him, but this time would be different. As soon as he let down his guard she was going to kick him right where it hurts. She hoped Akiri would come after her soon. The doors to the salon slid opened and the man stopped to take a breather, obviously his physique wasn't up to standard, something she needed to take advantage of.

"Touya Meijin! I just caught this boy outside." He exclaimed and let go of her, yes, the chance she was waiting for.

"What the hell do you mean caught you f*cken pervet!" she yelled irritably and kicked him with all her might right where it hurt. Sai was having an internal strife with his emotions right now. On one hand he was displeased with the language Hikaru just used, a girl shouldn't talk like that, but on the other hand he worried over the fact that this man had abducted Hikaru. In the end his worries won the battle and he sighed in relief when he realised that the man had only brought her to the Touya's go salon. Really sometimes he wished he had his own body so he could protect Hikaru.

Gasps could be heard coming from everyone as the familiar kid who beat Akira just swore at the top of his lungs and kicked down Ogata, a man they all respected. Sai turned to glace at the onlookers and his eyes instantly locked onto one person.

"_Hikaru!" _Sai said and tried to get her attention.

"_Not now Sai." _

These stupid go players couldn't leave her alone, was everyone in Tokyo this aggressive? The man crumpled on the floor swore under his breathe and glared at her.

"You little brat!" his fist scrunched up and he looked like he was about to punch her.

"That's enough, Ogata." Said an overpowering voice.

Hikaru turned to see who the owner of the voice and to her alarm saw that it was none other than Touya Meijin. Was this why Sai was trying to get her attention before? The Touya family was certainly causing her a lot of trouble lately. She looked up at him and noticed his familiar calculating gaze locked on her. Two heart pounding encounters with the man already made her somewhat immune to his natural glares so she didn't mind and managed to keep her cool despite all the ruckus she had just caused.

"I would prefer it if you did not resort to violence in the salon Sakimori-san."

"Well I'm sorry for disturbing everyone here then," she grumbled in a mock apologetic tone. "It wasn't exactly my intention to be abducted off the streets and dragged in here against my will. If my violence is really such a bother then I best be on my way."

"Wait," he stepped away from the game he was standing by a motioned to an empty seat. "I heard that you have beat Akira, twice. I want to know your ability. Sit down."

Was this his way of demanding a rematch? If not then this was daddy's way of getting revenge. She was sure she saw vague recognition in his eyes the last time they met, after all only so many kids had bleach bangs. If that wasn't it then her shoddy disguises were working quite well.

"_Hikaru…"_

"_I know Sai, I know. I'll let you play him, but that creepy pervert is starting to freak me out." _She sent a glare towards the man in the white suit. _"I don't mean to rush you, but I was just kidnapped in front of Akiri, you don't really want to see her mad now do you?"_ she asked and winced at the last part, remembering what happened the last time she got Akiri angry.

"_Of course Hikaru," _Sai chuckled. _"Let's see how far our go has gone in two months."_

Hikaru went into her go mode for Sai, eyes taking on a steely gleam, and nodded her head. There were so many curious witnesses around to see the match between Touya Meijin and the kid who beat Akira twice. Thank god it was still working hours so the place wasn't as crowded as it usually would be. After this match she was definitely going to stop dressing up as a boy for a while and lay low, she seemed to have the unluckiest of luck of coming across child abusers whenever she was a boy. The stupid name of Sakimori Takeshi that she had blurted of on a whim had to be eradicated before more crazy people went after her.

The two sat down and set up their game. Hikaru was black while her opponent was white, was it her imagination or whenever she played a Touya she was black. Well it didn't matter anyway, it was an even game with no komi rule. After the customary exchange the battle between the two destined rivals began. There were some murmurs amongst the others as they noticed that it was an even game, but she was too focused to even bother.

Pachi.

Pachi.

Pachi.

Although it was only the beginning of the game the pressure coming from the two players was almost excruciating. This was no casual game that the Meijin was simply playing to test the skills of some kid who beat his son, the two players were going all out in the beginning, each hand being a vital component to the game, no move could go wasted. Though the weight in the room was immense it was not something all the occupants of the room could feel, it was a pressure that only the two opponents could feel and share. Hikaru once again felt the familiar choking of her lungs like the last time Sai and Touya Meijin played, but skillfully hid it. There was no doubt in her mind now that Touya Meijin had recognised Sakimori Takeshi as Natume Tsubame.

Pachi.

Pachi.

"I started teaching Go to Akira when he was just two years old."

Pachi.

"We played a game every morning, he is already at pro level. I don't let him play in amateur tournaments. If he plays in a tournament he may discourage a still improving opponent."

Hikaru privately rolled her eyes at his, as did Sai. (He was starting to pick off some of her bad habits just as she was picking up his). Wasn't this a watered down story of what Touya passionately proclaimed to her the other day. Not that she cared but everyone seemed to really emphasis on the fact that Touya had played since he was two, screw that, she had an overexcited ghost shove go done her throat since she was born.

Pachi.

"Akira is special."

Closet doting parent? Was he using this opportunity to brag about his son?

Pachi.

Pachi.

Touya's surroundings seemed to fade away as he continued to play, Sakimor-no Natsume. He was slightly curious as to why the girl was dressing up as a boy and used a different name. It was none of his business as to why the girl did so, but still he was slightly curious. A child of this skill could not have just suddenly popped out of nowhere as though she had never existed. She did not seem to be the daughter of any go player he knew, so how was it that her skill was up to this level, he was sure it wasn't just all self taught like she had told him.

The intensity that radiated from the young child reminded him of the Room of Profound Darkness, it was not something a child still in primary school was capable of. He had somewhat underestimated the girl last time, but this time he would not make the same mistake. Compared to lat time the girl's go had become slightly more modern, it was still old and reminded him of Honinbo Shusaku, but since then it had grown and adapted. He noted that the girl's stone handling was slightly better than last time, better, but not still good. Regardless of how she held her stones her play was beyond exceptional. He could feel the familiar exhilarating excitement with each hand he played like their game two months ago. It had been so long since he had last played a game with an equal. Touya Meijin knew that he had found his destined rival.

Pachi.

Pachi.

Pachi.

Pachi.

BAM!!

Suddenly the door slammed open. "Takeshi!" Everyone turned around and saw a young elementary school girl at the door.

"Akiri!"

"Takeshi what happened?" she asked and glanced around nervously, eyes landing on Ogata. "Is that the pervert you told me about? Do we need to call the police?"

A vein popped open on Ogata's forehead and he angrily walked towards the door, obviously annoyed at being called a pervert.

"Little girl this isn't a place for kids! If you're not here to play go then get out!" he yelled and shoved her out the door.

"_Damn him!"_

"_How rude! Is this how a grown man treats a child?" _Sai asked in disgust as his concentration broke.

"Hey leave Akiri alone!" Hikaru yelled angrily and clumsily jumped to the rescue, knocking over the stones and the chair. Great, she just ruined Sai's game, they were only a quarter into the game though. She pushed the man away front her and stood in front of Akiri protectively. "If kids aren't allowed in here then I'll just go as well, c'mon Akiri."

"Hey, wait!"

Hikaru stuck up her middle finger, much to the fury of everyone, and ran out of the salon with Akiri in toll. Before she left she gave a brief glance towards Touya Meijin who simply nodded in acknowledgement. The silent message of 'we'll play again another time' was transmitted through their brief eye contact. Akiri was trying to get her to stop but Hikaru continued dragging her along as they ran. Only until they got to what she thought was a safe distance did she finally spot.

"_I'm sorry Sai."_

"_Don't worry about it Hikaru. If that man and I truly are destined to play then someday we will cross paths again when the time is right."_

"Hikaru, what happened and who were those people?" Akiri asked through short breathes.

Hikaru turned to the taller girl and contemplated about telling her the truth. To be honest she already knew bits and pieces of her recently growing double life and she had helped out a number of times whenever she got in trouble, example being just now. She did owe an explanation to her best friend.

"Um… remember when you told me my cross-dressing would one day come back and bite me?"

"Yeah…"

"It just did."

Akiri snorted and an 'I told you so' look spread across her face.

"How did you know to call me Takeshi?"

"Well, everyone thought you were a boy so I knew it wasn't safe to call out your real name."

"Thanks."

"Ah I just remembered." Akiri dug into her bag and took out two crumpled tickets. "My sister gave me these tickets for free food at her Jr. high school festival. Let's go together."

"Free food!" Hikaru cheered.

Akiri giggled and handed her the ticket for next Sunday.

"Since I'm such a good friend let's make our way to the café again. Don't forget you still have to pay for everything."

* * *

_A few days later_

Banner, posters hung everywhere around Haze Jr. High as it advertised the facilities of the school. Students were busy running their stands as the school was filled to the brim with people. School clubs were set up everywhere, advertising their activities in hopes of gaining the attention of potential freshmen members. Today Hikaru was dressed up as a boy again, although she did say that she would stop it was really hard on deciding what to wear as a girl, though she did dress up as a girl every now and then it took a lot more effort then dressing up as a boy. In the end she gave up and just put on whatever she saw first, which happened to be an outfit that had been lying on the floor for a least five days. Hikaru and Akiri had come to the school festival early in the morning in hopes of getting as much free food as possible.

"What do you mean they won't give us anymore food?" Hikaru spat as she ate her 3rd hotdog.

"Mou-Hikaru, don't talk with your mouth full," Akiri said and wiped the sauce off of her check. "I told you, we've already visited every stall there is and got free food from all of them. There's a rumour going around now that there's a kid with a free food ticket going around that'll eat everyone into bankruptcy."

"How did a rumour like that travel around in only two hours?" she asked as she sipped from her 10th soda can. "Hey, are you going to finish that?" she pointed to her meat bun.

"No, you can have it." Akiri sighed and handed over the meat bun which she happily chomped down. She gazed at her cross-dressing best friend enviously. "Geez Hikaru how can you eat do much food and not get fat?" she asked, poking at her scrawny arms."

"Cob'I ebercise a blot."

"_Swallow before talking" _"Swallow before talking." Her two friends simultaneously scolded.

"Anyway, now that we're done eating why don't we go check out some of the club stalls?" asked Akiri. "We're going to be coming here next year right?"

"Yup." Hikaru smiled. She drained the last of her soda and skillfully threw it into a nearby bin.

The club stalls went on as far as the eyes could see, or until the end of the school yard. Haze Jr. high after all was famous for the number of clubs in the school. Hikaru was in the soccer club at her school, but she didn't feel like joining the soccer club in Jr. High. Primary soccer was mixed after all, Jr. High soccer was split in gender and had early morning training. She didn't really feel like waking up early in the mornings and wearing the girls soccer uniform.

The two ran around, enjoying the sights of some of the strange clubs the school had. There was a shoujo manga club, a roller skating club and even a club dedicated to chicken cutlets. Akiri laughed when she saw the hip hop club demonstrating some of their moves while Sai just looked bewilder.

"_Hikaru look over there! Those people are playing go."_

Hikaru turned around and saw a single table among the club stalls with a shoddy goban. Was this the go club? There was only one student there, a guy with black hair and large glasses, he appeared to be teaching passer byers how to play go.

"_Let's go look Hikaru, let's go look."_

"Hikaru look at the balloon animal club." Akiri laughed.

"Hey Akiri, can we check out the go club over there?"

Akiri recovered from her laughter and glanced over where to go club was, surrounded by adults.

"I don't mind, but there're all old people there. You really love go don't you Hikaru?"

The two plus ghost trod over to the table where the kid with glasses was showing the adults go problems.

"_Looks fun, looks fun."_

"This is a mid-level problem," the kid said as he pushed up his glasses. "Do it in three hands."

The three watched as the old man in the seat struggled with the problem. It didn't look that hard, Hikaru though.

"_Hikaru, that book over there."_

She looked over at the prize table and saw a go book amongst a pile of tissues and soda cans. "Touya Meijin's Go Tutorial?"

The glasses kid, noticing that a kid was here, answered her. "It's a prize if you can solve the go problems."

"_Hikaru!! I want!! I want!!" _Said begged like a dog and hugged her.

"_Oh God." _She choked.

She gave a glance to Akiri to see if she wouldn't mind if she tried to get the book who in turn nodded in approval. Akiri understood her feelings about freebies.

"Then can I go next?"

"Sure."

She sat down on the chair and watched as glasses boy set up the problem. The problem was easy, too easy. As soon as his hands left the board Hikaru placed the stones in the right place and won a packet of tissues.

"_You probably have to solve a harder question to win the book."_

"Hey can you give me a harder one?" Was he underestimating her because she was a kid?

"Harder one? Sure," he referred to the book and placed down a more advanced problem. "This is a pretty advanced problem, even I would take a while on it. Please solve it in three hands."

Hikaru just glanced down at the problem and solved it as fast as she did the first time.

"_3-14, 4-14 and 1-16 right Sai?"_

"_Good job Hikaru."_

The crowd gasped at her speed and glasses boy absent-mindedly passed her a soda can. Hikaru scowled and passed the can to Akiri who thanked her.

"Hey can you give me the hardest problem so I can win the book."

"The hardest problem?" the boy asked and nervously adjusted his glasses. "You'd have to be Touya Akira's level if you want to solve this problem."

"Touya Akira?" she asked, that name sounded vaguely familiar. "As in the guy in the book's son?"

"You don't know him?" he asked surprised. "He's going to take the pro exam and spends his time teaching adults. He's the only kid who can solve this super difficult problem." He placed the complicated problem a sighed sadly, "Go ahead, the first hand is the key."

"_Touya Akira? Where have I heard that name before…"_

"_Hikaru how could you forget?" _Said cried out. _"He was the boy that you crushed and you were upset that you beat him!"_

"_Oh yeah…" _she finally remembered. How could she possibly forget him after that memorable game? Her short term memory seemed to be failing her quite a bit lately.

"Is he the strongest kid our age or something?" she asked and looked at the board. She already knew the answer and was about to place a stone down until the faint scent of cigarette smoke seeped into the area and some guy with wild red hair wearing a shougi outfit crushed his cigarette in the correct spot.

"Kaga, what are you doing?"

The smoking boy known as Kaga sneered. "Heh, quit this stuff, go sucks!! Capturing territory on a table with stones? That's lame, shougi is a thousand times more fun. Who cares about Touya Akira, I've beaten that pathetic loser."

"Hey don't disrespect go!" Hikaru yelled.

"Kaga used to attend the same go class as Touya Akira," the glasses boy muttered as he wiped the goban. "Though he's now in the shougi club. There aren't many people who know Touya Akira personally."

"_He solved the difficult problem so easy Hikaru. Play him so we can learn his level. Play!! Play!!"_

"Hey Tsutsui, what happened to the go club you're building?" Kaga mocked. "You were all excited that if you can get 3 more members and enter the team tournament they'd let you have a club. Based on the situation I'll enter. You know my ability, I'm 1000 times stronger then you."

"I don't want the help of a guy who puts cigarettes out on a goban." Tsutsui snapped.

"BAH! Whatever… who was the guy begging me the other day to enter the tournament?"

Tsutsui's face grew angry. "Here!" he thrust the book into Kaga. "Take the book and leave."

"Touya Meijin's go book?" he stared at it for a second before flipping it open and tearing out the pages. "I told you I hate go and Touya Akira!!"

"_Noo~!" _Sai sobbed.

Hikaru had had enough. "Hey what's your problem?!" she snapped. "I don't care if you hate with Touya Akira, but I wanted that book."

"You wanted the book kid?" Kaga scoff. "Go is for losers like Touya Akira and Tsutsui, come to the shougi club kid."

"Why does every keep talking about Touya Akira like he's some kind of prodigy child? What's your problem with him anyway? Is he the measuring stick for kids our age or something?"

Kaga's scary expression melted away and he burst out laughing. "GAHAHAHAHA! You play go and you don't even know who Touya Akira is kid? I like you already!" he slapped her painfully on the back.

"Geez Hikaru can we leave now?" Akiri complained as she butted into the conversation. "First that crazy pervert and now this crazy shougi player, the people you meet through playing go are really weird. Besides how can you not remember Touya Akira? Didn't you tell me that you beat him?"

This caught the attention of everyone around the vicinity that knew the name Touya Akira. Tsutui's eyes widened while the newly lit cigarette in Kaga's mouth that no one seemed to have noticed before fell out of his mouth.

"Kid, did you really beat Touya Akira?" Kaga asked in a serious voice.

"Yeah." What was with everyone? Sure Touya Akira was strong, but he couldn't possibly be the strongest person their age could he? The recent events started coming back to her as she remembered Touya Meijin's words _'Akira is special'. _

"It's not something that people can just lightly go around claiming." He walked behind the go table and pushed Tsutsui out of his seat. "Kid, let's play. If I lose, then I'll get down on my knees or whatever and acknowledge go. But if you lose, I get to chuck you into the freezing pool."

"Fine, I'll show you how awesome go is." She said confidently. "Akiri you don't mind if I play a game do you?"

"Just do whatever you want." Akiri droned. "Just don't come crying to me when you get thrown in the pool." She stuck out her tongue. "You and your go."

"_Yay, a game, a game!"_

"Alright! Nigiri."

And thus the game between the shougi player and go fanatic began. The crowd that had accumulated from all the shouting before began to disperse as the game dragged on. Only the four pre-teens and ghost remained. The two spectators watched with their eyes glued to the game with the two players shouting every now and then.

"Your stone handling sucks!"

"Who cares!? It's about where you put the stones!"

"Mouth off after you win brat!"

Hikaru smiled as she played. She was enjoying the game, there weren't many times when she got to play kids her own age. Sai too smiled as he watched the game. Kaga was good, yes, but Hikaru was better. If was nice watching children play; whenever Hikaru plays older people she always get fidgety and nervous; though she was slowly getting better at masking her emotions, these kinds of games were good for building her confidence. Sai recalled when Hikaru was still very young she would challenge Sai every single day with hopes of beating him. They played tens of games everyday to the delight of Sai, even though she was just a child then her growth was phenomenal. The fiery passion that she played every time, he remembered it as though it were yesterday. But after a while, constantly losing to him gradually chipped away at her confidence. She'd hardly played anyone other then him, so she did not know her own strength.

In the end Hikaru won by 5 moku. The two middle schoolers stared at the board in disbelief.

"_Good game."_

"See that Akiri I won!" she gloated. "Submit to the awesomeness of go Kaga-san."

The shougi player didn't seem to heed her words and just looked from the game to her.

"Amazing…" Tsutsui muttered. "With this play it's possible that he did beat Touya Akira."

Kaga was in deep though as he stared at the game, a plan was formulating in his mind. "Tsutsui, take off your jacket." He ordered

"What?"

"I said take it off." He yelled and grabbed the back off his collar. He ripped the school uniform off of Tsutsui and chucked it into Hikaru's face. "Here, put this on."

"Kaga, what are you doing."

"We have members for the team tournament Tsutsui." Kaga said in a scheming pose.

"Huh?"

"You, me and him."

"What?!"

"I'm the captain, this brat's the vice captain and you're the third captain."

"Why am I the third captain?"

"Because I'm a genius." He boasted, even though he just lost.

"Kaga you just lost, and besides we can't have a grade-schooler as the vice captain."

"Fine, he can be third captain."

"But! What if they find out…"

"Then just don't let them find out," Kaga cackled. "The kid doesn't mind, does he?" he asked directing his attention to her.

"No I don't mind…" she drew out.

Akiri came over to Hikaru and started fussing over her, asking what a go tournament was, while Kaga and Tsutsui continued their little banter. Man, the things she did to play go. if she dressed as a girl today things like this wouldn't happen so often. Sai was beaming and laughing, or cackling, happily in the background.

"Kaga!"

"I said who cares, besides, don't you want to see the extent of his ability?" He asked in a hushed voice.

The arguing pair looked over at the kid wearing the oversized jacket as he explained about go tournaments to the girl.

"EH!!" cried the girl. "But Hikaru you're a girl."

For the second time today the cigarette fell out of Kaga's mouth and the glasses slipped off of Tsutsui's face.

"WHAT!!"


	6. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **I'm sorry for this mega late update. I've been having troubles with the internet lately and the other week I was actually cut off from it *cries*. Does anyone know what they used to do before the internet came around? Man I never knew my life depended so much on it, can't remember what I used to do.

Anyway thank you for the reviews, they are much appreciated.

I'm sure everyone notices the obvious **Title Change **and are having questions. I apologise for the misleading title as I have used it incorrectly as pointed out by a reviewer, which I thank. I hope that the new title is okay.

-

**To rianifitria:** thank you for telling me the meaning of okama. I was having trouble with the title and my friend suggested this. I hope that the Title Change is satisfactory. Also you were right about the crossdressing thing and I'll try and take things into more consideration when I write.

**To Nikari87: **Thanks for pointing out the spelling error with Akari's name. Also the thing about if go is segregated in Japan, I don't really know but when Nase was in the Pro exams there didn't seem to be any seperation between the males and females so I'll just assume that there isn't any.

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This chapter didn't really go as I wanted it to so i apologise for its poor quality. From next chapter onwards I'll going to start making a lot more drastic changes to the story. I'm still following the manga, but i'm going to start making changes to a few things, so far I haven't really done anything so I hope all goes well.

Oh and I need to do something that I forgot to do when I first started the story.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Hikaru no Go! All rights to the story belong to the author!

_

* * *

_

_Sunday, Kaio Junior High School_

"Wow, so this is Kaio huh?" Hikaru cried out as she spun around to look at the huge school building. "This place is huge." _Let's just hope we won't get lost in it._

Kaio Junior High was one of the best schools in the country, or so it said in the pamphlet. Only the richest and most talented kids could attend this school. There was no way she'd ever see this school if it weren't for the go tournament. She was worried that she might not be able to find the way to the tournament but thankfully there were signs posted around the school that pointed her in the right direction. The school was practically deserted, (of course, who would go to school on a weekend) except for a few teachers who eyed her warily. With the help of the signs she was able to make her way through the labyrinth of a school and to her destination. She entered a large room filled with tables, chairs and gobans. The room only had a few people in it who were currently playing practice games and revising go strategies.

"_I guess we're a bit early, the others aren't here yet." _Hikaru was usually late to everything because her natural sense of direction was screwed and Sai's was even worse, that and she usually overslept. Today she left the house early so she wouldn't be late. She had invited Akari to come, but she declined and said that she wouldn't understand anything.

"_Hikaru, what kind of tournament is this? It looks different from the other one we went to."_

"_This is a Junior High team tournament. Each side has 3 players and the side that wins twice advances." _She explained, relaying the memories of last week when Tsutsui explained the tournament to her.

Once they found out her real gender Tsutsui just grew more nervous and Kaga groped her chest to see if there was actually anything there, Akari had to then physically restrain her from attacking the smoking teen. For God's sake she was just a kid, there wasn't anything 'there'. After that he just laughed and said that this just made things even more interesting. Eventually they found out her real name, as they were probably going to be future friends when she would attend Haze Jr. High. She had asked if she could enter the tournament under a fake name, which they agreed to. Hikaru was currently wearing an oversized Haze uniform, courtesy of Tsutsui, and a large bandanna that she somehow skillfully managed to shove and pin all her hair under.

She walked over to the notice board and looked at the match-ups. "Let's see… Haze Jr. High…8 boys teams and 6 girls teams…Hm, not much."

"_Isn't this exciting Hikaru? We never had matches like this in the past."_

"_Yeah, I can't wait."_

Sai waved his fan around and then rested it on his face. This was a perfect opportunity to test Hikaru's skills. _"Hikaru, there's something that I want to teach you later during the tournament."_

"_What is it?"_

"_You won't find out until you play." _Sai said playfully.

"_Fine don't tell me," _she fake sulked_. "Then I'm just going to—Yikes!"_ she immediately saw someone who would threaten her identity and retreated to some table and pretended to observe someone play.

The boy who almost gave her a heart attack was a Kaio student who was one of the brothers of a boy in her class. The Kaio student had seen her before in the elementary school but thankfully didn't know that she was a girl. He was talking with some of his friends and walked right passed her and fortunately didn't seem to notice her, she breathed a sigh of relief.

After about ten minutes a very happy Tsutsui along with a sleepy in toll Kaga came walking through the entrance. Kaga seemed mildly out of it when Hikaru told the two that someone might recognise her while Tsutsui was a little nervous. A loud coughing sound caught the attention of everyone in the room and they all turned to the source in the front where three teachers stood. The teachers began a boring introduction that was putting everyone to sleep, mainly Kaga who was now leaning on Hikaru and using her as an arm rest. Hikaru herself was on the verge of falling asleep if it were not for the fact that she was standing and had nothing to lean on.

Thankfully the teacher finished speaking after twenty minutes and the first round of the tournament could finally begin. Kaga, who had now somewhat sobering up a little ruffled her hair before leaving and muttered something along the lines of 'don't get caught' and then began walking to their area. Hikaru followed suit and focused on not drawing any attention to herself.

"Haze Vs. Kawahagi."

The three sat in line in their arranged order in front of three gobans and strange timers. She examined the weird timer and pocked it a few times like a curios child.

"_Hikaru what is that strange device?"_

"_I don't know…I think it's some sort of timer, but I don't know what it's for."_

'click'

"Hey what are you doing?! We haven't started yet!" her opponent yelled.

Hikaru moved back a little in surprise. Tsutui quickly reached over her and clicked the timer again.

"Sakata-kun, if you touch the match clock it will start moving."

"Match clock?" _"Match clock?"_

"Each person gets 45 minutes." Tsutui explained and pointed to the timer. "After each hand you press here, got it?"

She nodded at examined the clock again without touching it this time. So school tournaments had time limits to play their games? It was kind of understandable, sometimes a game could go on for hours, if a game went on for too long at a school tournament it would probably be troublesome.

"Hey, hey," muttered Kaga, "Weren't we not going to draw attention?

"Sorry if I've never seen a match clock before," she grunted back.

The six sat in silence as they waited for the announcer to initiate the match. Tsutui was reading a book while Kaga was waving around his shougi fan, seriously Kaga sure loved shougi as much as Hikaru loved go. Hikaru busy was fiddling with her sleeves, which were too long.

"_Sai what was it that you wanted to teach me during the game?" _she asked as she remembered their conversation before.

"_What I want to try and teach you now are handicapped games." _Sai said happily.

"_Handicap games?"_

"_That's right. Handicap games are game where you begin playing with a disadvantage, changing your style of playing and also your perception of the game."_

"_But-but won't I lose if I play like that?" _she asked nervously._ "Besides what's the point?"_

Sai smiled gently and patted her head. _"This is a good opportunity to learn. You did say you wanted to play more challenging games didn't you?"_

"_No, actually you were the one that said that."_

"_Detials~details~. When I was still learning go I used to play self-handicapped games all the time to improve my go, and look where I am today."_

"_*after playing for a thousand years*" she coughed._

Sai pouted in a childlike manner, but immediately resumed his teacher like pose. _"In go you can beat your opponent just by just having half a moku more. In each match you can just protect an early lead. But in handicap go it is as if you are giving your opponent 20 or 30 moku from the beginning. So you must go out of your way to grab territory."_

"_So basically you become better at attacking?"_

"_Correct."_ Sai chimed. _"This experience also becomes valuable in coming from behind in regular games."_

"_I guess I understand now…"_

"_Good. With this game now I want you to play with a 30 stone handicap."_

"_WHAT?!"_

"You may now begin." The announcer said.

"You're the captain?" Sneered the Kawahagi captain. Hikaru glanced over at Kaga and listened in on what they were saying. Why did they choose only now to speak when everyone else stopped talking, magnifying their speech all the more? "Could you be from the shougi club? Why are you here? Didn't have enough members," he laughed. "Couldn't even find three?"

"Just hurry up and Nigiri." Kaga said in a laid-back manner.

"You sure?" the captain mocked. "Maybe we should look for a shougi board." The captain began laughing like an idiot, as did his two teammates.

Tsutui was starting to get tense and gripped his book tightly, but Kaga stood his ground and whacked the captain on the head with his fan.

"You're lucky it's just go," he scoffed. "You're king would be dead in 5 minutes if we played shougi. It will take me 10 minutes in go. You've got 5 more minutes to live."

"Kaga, avoid attention." Tsutui whispered. However Kaga didn't seem to be paying attention at all as his ego got the better of him.

"You don't even know how strong I am!"

"Whether you're strong or weak will become clear soon," Kaga said and learned back on his chair and picked his nose. "Guy's who start whining before the match are weak."

A teacher in the other end of the room noticed that they hadn't started yet and yelled at them. "Hey you over there! Be quiet and begin."

Tsutui blushed in embarrassment and elbowed Kaga in the ribs to nigiri. Honestly the words 'low profile' could not be associated with their team with people like Kaga in it. After doing Nigiri Kaga got white, making Tsutui black and Hikaru white.

"Please."

"Please."

"Please."

"Please."

"Please."

"Yeah, yeah, please whatever."

With the last table finally beginning their game the room fell silent. The only sounds that could be heard in the room were the soft clicks of the stones and the echoing footsteps of the teachers as they walked passed the tables. The silence was good, but it could only last for so long.

"Tsutsui what the hell are you doing!!" Kaga yelled.

"Huh?"

Hikaru clutched hair and hung her head low in a feeble attempt to hide. It was no use trying not to draw attention to themselves anymore, Kaga was just to damn annoying. With the help of Sai she blocked out her eccentric future sempai and focused hard on her 30 stone handicap game.

"Are you an idiot?! Looking at a go book?" Kaga screamed.

"It's not against the rules or anything…" Tsutui replied weakly.

"This is why you are so weak! Don't you know that a book is useless once your opponent adjusts?!"

"I know…But I can't relax without it…"

"_Ignore…ignore…ignore…"_

"Hey you again over there, be quiet!" yelled a teacher.

Hikaru was focused too hard on her game that she sometimes forgot to hit her clock. She really wasn't used to hitting the clocks and they got really annoying after a while. Sai was happily watching her match and was the one reminding her to hit the clock every now and then. Hikaru really was going well for playing handicapped for the first time. Ten minutes later Kaga was standing proudly with his shougi fan in all it's glory. Sai looked up to see the commotion that Kaga was causing again and was surprised at what he saw.

"I can't hear you."

"I've…lost." whispered his traumatised opponent.

"Ok, 10 minutes." He stated proudly.

The whole team was shaken by their captains quick loss and as did Tsutui, Hikaru on the other hand remained un-affected, she probably didn't even notice anything happening. Sai smiled. Hikaru was really very devoted to playing go, no one could break her concentration once she started playing seriously, except maybe him. With the dedication that Hikaru played with and rapid growth she'd be able to rival him in a few years, something he patiently looked forward to.

A hand clamped itself on the third captain's shoulder of the opposing team. "Don't be discouraged."

Sai looked over and saw their teacher saying something to them. Speaking of teachers every other school except Haze Jr. High seemed to have a go teacher or coach.

"Sensei."

"It's alright." The teacher whispered. "We just need two wins and you guys can win." Sai snorted at that, but immediately stopped himself, it was rude to snort. But he couldn't help himself, there was no way Hikaru was going to lose.

Kaga, having finished his match and gotten tired of taunting the losing captain, decided to check out Hikaru's game. What he saw made his eyebrows twitch and eyes bulge out.

"What the hell is this?! You suck." he shouted. Did Kaga even have an inside voice? "What's up with this game? This is nothing compared to the one during the cultural festival."

In reality Hikaru was actually winning her game, despite being at a heavy disadvantage, but her skills were clearly diminished from last Sunday.

"How can you be this bad?" He asked in an unbelieving tone. Alright now he was just exaggerating things. "Was it just luck? If you played like this a week ago then I would've had no problem beating you!"

Kaga's monologue seemed to go by ignored by everybody in the room, except Sai. Everyone probably grew adapt to his loud voice and learnt to block it out in the short time span since he arrived. It wasn't until after Hikaru's game did she even acknowledge his presence.

"I resign." Her opponent said.

She gave a sigh of relief, she was exhausted. Playing a 30 stone handicap game was stressful and tiring, but she somehow made it in the end. Sai smiled at her achievement and praised her wonderful performance, as well as giving out certain pointers here and there on what she should work on the next time she played another handicap game. He also, to her horror, said something about 30 stones being too easy for her and maybe perhaps making the next games handicap being 40 stones. For the love of the God of Go Sai's teaching methods were brutal.

"Hey are you even listening to me?"

A painful whack on the head with a fan, courtesy of Kaga, brought her back to reality.

"OW!" she rubbed her sore spot. "What was that for?"

"Why was your play so crap compared to last week?" he boomed.

"That's because I was playing handicap go." she whined.

"Handicap go?" he repeated with irritation before arming himself with his fan again and lunging for another attack. "Kid, take this tournament seriously!"

Tsutui, who had just won his match and was making his way over to the duo, Hikaru hastily ran towards him and used him as a shield against Kaga. A standoff duel began between the two as they circled around the disgruntled human buffer. Kawahagi walked always with their shoulders sagged and heavy air, how could they have lost to _them?_ A lot of people were looking at the Haze trio again

"Kaga, Sakata-kun, why are you two fighting?" Tsutui asked with a tired sigh.

"Tsutui!" Kaga exclaimed, seeming to only notice him just now. "This kid was playing a horrible game, even you could've beaten him."

"What do you mean 'even' me?"

"I told you I was playing handicap go." She whined, nursing her wounds.

"Handicap? Why were you playing handicap go?"

"So I can get stronger." She replied flatly.

The two older boys just stared at her in disbelief, with Kaga and Tsutui both hanging their mouths opened. Perhaps she needed to add a little more detail and elaborate a bit to satisfy their curiosity. Sai smiled inwardly, the two boys obviously thought very highly of Hikaru's skills if they couldn't believe that she needed to be stronger.

"Er… you see a go instructor told me that playing handicap games help improve your attacking." She explained. "I don't really sorta get that much time to play because of stuff, so I thought I could try it out here. Anyway how did your game go Tsutui-san?" she asked trying to redirect the conversation away from her.

"Me? I won." He beamed and did a victory sign.

"It was during yose wasn't it?" Kaga asked with a twitchy eye. "You don't really make mistakes in yose."

"Yup, I'm strong in counting moku and finishing games."

Hikaru blinked and looked between the two, this was the first time that Kaga actually acknowledged Tsutui's skills.

"You're still a fool at the beginning though." He chided.

And he just had to ruin it, but this time Tsutui didn't seem so discouraged like the other times whenever Kaga criticized him.

"Captain, go announce of results."

"Yeah."

The three walked towards the teacher with a marker in hand standing by the score board.

"Haze Jr. High, we won 3-0."

The teacher drew a mark on the board signifying their advancement and told them to wait until the announcement for the semi-finals as they were the first team to finish. Somehow the sound of being the first team to finish brought sparkling tears of joy to Tsutui's eyes. The three went out to go buy drinks from a vending machine outside and take a break while they waited for the others to finish. Tsutui was generous enough to buy the drinks for them. Hikaru perched herself on the edge of the railings of the stairwell will the other two leaned against it.

Entering the school tournament had been a dream for Tsutui. Ever since he entered Jr. High he had wanted to start a go club and win the tournament, but sadly no one at Haze seemed to even know what go was with the exception of Kaga. He had brilliant skills, but absolutely detested the game. When he first heard that Kaga could play go he was exhilarated and begged him to play go, but no matter how many times he asked Kaga's answer was set in stone and he refused to have anything to do with go.

With the coming of his third year his dreams of having an actually go club and beating Kaio was diminishing. He was actually considering abolishing the go club next year if no one joined, but now he was having second thoughts. Here he was standing where he had dreamed to be for the last two years, playing in the final school tournament of the year with the most unlikely of teammates he could ever find. The famed demon captain of the shougi club as his captain and a tomboy of a girl, who was still in elementary school, as his third-captain. He glanced over at his companions who were currently arguing over something trivial again.

"I think…I think with Sakata-kun in our team we'll be able to win the tournament." He said out loud to himself.

The two instantly stopped their little dispute and looked over at him.

"What are you talking about Tsutui-san? We're gonna kick their buts." Hikaru cried out.

Tsutui beamed at the young girl's enthusiasm.

"Kekeke…Hey Tsutui." Kaga grabbed Hikaru by the neck and head locked her. "If we manage to win the tournament I'll gladly join the go club next year."

Tsutui was now gaping like a fish. Kaga the go hater. Kaga the egomaniac. Kaga the shougi captain, had just said that he'd join the go club if they won the tournament. After two years of refusal he finally agreed to join!

"Really?!" he almost squealed. Almost.

"She's joining too." Kaga said commandingly and pulled her off the rails.

"EEEEHHHH?!" she screamed as she regained her balance. "Not that I don't mind joining, but aren't you in the shougi club? And whatever happened to go is for losers? "

Kaga snickered. "Our school system allows us to join as many clubs as you want, so I'll be able to be in both clubs. And of course go is for losers, but its fun playing like this in the tournament. Crushing that other team and seeing their devastated faces is more fun then I thought." He chuckled evilly. "I can't wait to crush those Touya wannabes."

"Touya wannabes?"

Tsutui sweat dropped at the crazed Kaga while Hikaru asked him about the Touya wannabes. Well even if Kaga wasn't joining the club with the purest of intentions at least he was getting more club members.

"He's talking about Kaio Jr. High." Tsutui explained. "Every year Kaio wins all of the go tournaments. Their go club is the biggest club in the whole area, and people usually say that their members are all Touya Akira level."

She turned to look at the school and let the information sink in. Largest go club in the area…. Bunch of Touya Akiras…"Sounds like a club with no lives."

Kaga started laughing again while Tsutui sighed.

"GWAHAHA! You're exactly right kid, and that's why we're going to beat'em. So make sure you don't play any of those handicap games when we're in the finals."

"Fine, fine." She waved dismissively. "Let's go in for the second round and wipe the floor with them!"

The second round went through somewhat of the same pattern as the first round, with them being the first team to finish again with three straight wins. It began off with Kaga taunting their opponent Sawara Jr. High. This school was slightly better than the first, with Kaga beating his opponent in fifteen minutes rather then the ten minutes that he boasted about. Their teacher/coach was a cranky old fart that chided the first captain when he lost and quite loudly pointed out possible moves he could've made so that he could have won. Kaga retaliated every move the teacher suggested in a rather cocky but also serious manner that got that old timer to shut up, honestly his voice was even louder than Kaga's. Tsutui's opponent was fairly better than his last one and this time he almost lost. He was rather shaken by the end of his game, but his flawless play in yose saved his hide.

Sai watched animatedly as the three children played. This time he had forced Hikaru to play a 40 stone handicap game. She had adapted greatly to playing under extreme circumstances in comparison to the first game. Her opponent was cocky in the beginning, with Hikaru playing seemingly poor hands he thought that it was his assured victory. Little did he know that he was playing with a massive advantage. In the end, even with the enormous handicap Hikaru still won. With another straight win they were in the finals.

They sat in the corner of the room and waited for the last game to finish. Regardless of who was playing it was obvious that Kaio was going to win and advance to the finals with them. Kaga had stolen Tsutui's book and threatened to burn it if he lost, it wasn't just an empty threat either, thanks to his smoking habit he had a lighter in his pocket. Hikaru was pretty sure he would go through with it if they lost, after all he'd already displayed his hate for go books last week. Her two teammates argued over the book, Hikaru made no attempt to be the peacemaker between the two. In a way this was sort of like an anxiety/stress reliever for those two. Despite their earlier enthusiasms they all silently knew that Kaio would be no push over.

Hikaru shifted from her squatting position and surveyed the room. People were glancing at them every now and then and muttering things. It was rather annoying, but what else can you expect? An anonymous school entering at the last minute and making it all the way to the finals was a pretty big deal.

"_The finals will be an interesting match."_

"_Apparently these people are Touya Akira level, so no handicaps Sai."_

"_Fine, fine."_

"_Since it's not even mid-day yet we can go out later and play some more go after this."_

"_Really?!"_

"_Yeah…I also have some extra money so that we can go buy a magnetic go board. I'm tired of playing mental go all the time. It may not be as good as a real goban but its beats using gridded paper all the time."_

"Kaio Jr. High won, 3-0."

There was a hushed silence in the room and the banter between Kaga and Tsutui instantly stopped. Everyone turned to the Haze trio as the announcer cleared his throat.

"Boys final, Haze Jr. High vs. Kaio Jr. High."

"This is it, isn't it?" Hikaru muttered as she got up from her crouching position.

Tsutui was visibly shaking with excitement/nervousness, while Kaga had a confident grin plastered on his face, confident, not cocky.

"Let's go."

They strode over to the tables where Kaio was sitting at and seated themselves opposite them. Hikaru sweat dropped when she noticed the grim expressions on everyones faces, honestly the way they were looking at them made it look like they were marching to their deaths. Well even with all their doubts they were going to beat Kaio, though playing with so many spectators was a little unnerving.

"Boys finals, please begin."

"Please."

"Please."

"Please."

"Please."

"Please."

"Please."

As the game initiated spectators came crowding around to watch the final watch of the school year between the undefeated Kaio and the anonymous Haze. Each game was to their varying degrees of intensity. Kaga, being the second best player there was playing to best player in Kaio. He had undoubtedly put up a good fight, but in the end he had lost. It may have been better if Hikaru was the captain, she would have definitely won, but having a kid as a captain was questionable. He gave a sigh and looked other at the other games and almost fell out of his seat when he saw Touya Akira standing behind the kid and intently watching her game.

Tsutui was fighting a losing battle. Though the absence of his book did increase his play

Kaio was undeniably good. He'd done his best so far, but he knew he could no longer regain his lost territory. Just when he was about to throw in the towel but then… his opponent made a careless mistake. Seizing this opportunity he quickly grabbed a stone and continued playing. If he made no mistakes, if he kept playing and made no mistakes then he could win by five moku. His opponent bit his nails in despair and before Tsutui could continue to game his opponent resigned. He had won, he beat Kaio.

Tsutui frantically looked over to Kaga to tell him the good news but saw nothing but an empty seat. Instead he found Kaga standing behind Shindou and realised that everyone had been focusing on her game.

Hikaru, after hearing that Kaio were a bunch of Touya Akira's, had started off the game with no mercy. If they were as good as Touya then she couldn't afford to have any slipups. Her opponent skill however was sorely disappointing. Sai commented that he was good, but no way near Touya Akira's level. In the end her opponent was completely overwhelmed by her and resigned in tears. Actually by the end of the game all of the Kaio players were in tears.

"We've won." She heard Kaga mutter from behind her.

"We really beat Kaio!" Tsutui exclaimed happily.

The old announcer, who had mysteriously appeared behind Hikaru smiled warmly at the trouble making team as he announced the results. "So with 2 wins and 1 lost Haze Jr. High wins the tournament."

The three broke into wide smiles as the crowd burst into wild murmurs about Kaio losing. They did it, they really need beat Kaio. All was going good until a voice called out from the crowd and blew her cover.

"Hey aren't you in my brother's class? Aren't you in the sixth grade?" the one person who could potentially blow her had stood dangerously close to her game and managed to recognise her.

All three Haze students were instantly struck by lightning and sweated bullets; it was all going pretty good too. Hikaru laughed nervously as the teachers interrogated them and disqualified Haze from the tournament, making it an automatic win for Kaio. Kaga was sending laser beams to the loudmouthed Kaio student that blew her cover while Tsutui was apologising to the judges and teachers. Hikaru sighed and scratched the back of her head.

"Sakimori."

She froze. That voice behind her and that name, it couldn't be… No, this was not happening. Why couldn't the name Sakimori Takeshi just die already? She didn't even like the name that much. If she knew this name was going to keep haunting her she would've chosen a cooler one. She never used the same alias twice in case it started to become more dominant and well known, like in this case. Slowly, very slowly, she turned around and sadly, saw the bane of Sakimori Takeshi's existence leaning against the wall wearing the stupidest suit she'd seen.

"Sakimori?" both Tsutui and Kaga asked. Kaga was glaring at Touya while Tsutui looked a little awed.

"I'll tell you later." She muttered.

"That was a beautiful game you played." He commented. "I'm so envious, why couldn't I have been your opponent."

God, didn't this kid play against Touya Meijin and other pros on a daily basis? And now he was envious of one of his clones that he got the play her? Way to sound like a spoiled brat. She had to get away from this kid.

"Errr… can you hold on a sec, I need to go to the bathroom." Not waiting for a reply she grabbed her bag and sprinting out of the room.

Making sure no one was around she quickly entered the girls bathroom and changed out of the Haze uniform. She needed to return the uniform to Tsutui so she brought along a spare set of clothes to change into. To her horror, or luck considering the situation, someone had mysteriously swapped the clothes she packed with a yellow dress, she suspected that the culprit was Akari. And oh… look Akari also put in a matching straw hat as well. She sighed and resigned to her fate. It was better than having another unwanted confrontation with Touya Akira.

"_Hikaru, Hikaru, you look so pretty in that dress." _Sai cried excitedly. _"Let your hair down, let your hair down."_

"You had something to do with Akari swapping my clothes didn't you?" she accused.

"_Eh? What could I have done?" _he replied innocently, a little too innocently.

"I don't know, maybe you entered her dreams last night and told her to do it."

She exited the cubicle and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was flowing our under her hat, but she made sure to hide her blonde bangs.

"_What are you going to do about Touya-kun?"_

"What I do to everybody else that follows me, ditch'em."

"_That's not very nice. With the skills that he plays with, he could very well be your rival."_

"Er…" she droned in a bored voice. "I'm not that interested in finding a rival. What we need to focus on is how to get you to play _your_ _own _eternal rival again."

It was cowardly ditching Touya, she knew, but the sooner she got away from Touya the faster the name Sakimori Takeshi could die out. Not the mention after their last encounter, with her crushing him and all, things would be pretty awkward. The life of Sakimori Takeshi needed to be exterminated to the point of extinction before it became out of control.

With everything settled she decided to leave the bathroom and meet up with her teammates. As she left the bathroom the sight that greeted her eyes made her freeze for a second time in the last ten minutes.

"_Craaaaap."_

"_Hikaru don't swear." _Scolded Sai, but when he saw the reason for her cussing he couldn't help but be surprised as well.

There, standing in front of the boys toilets, which happened to be right next to the girls toilets, stood Touya Akira. He wasn't standing outside the toilets waiting for her was he? How creepy was that.

"_Act natural, act natural," _she chanted. _"He doesn't know it's you."_

Quickly, but not too quickly or else it'll look suspicious, she walked passed him. Hopefully he wouldn't notice her bag which was exactly the same one as 'Sakimori' had. Their eyes meet for a brief moment, she didn't know what to do so opted to flashed him a small smile, which he responded by with a polite nod. Once out of the red zone she found her teammates waiting for her out in the front.

"Tsutui-san! Kaga-san!" she called as she ran. "Here's your uniform back." She handed Tsutui the bag that she put his uniform in.

"Shindou?!" they both yelled.

"Yeah?" She could've sworn she saw their eyes pop out.

"Is this what they mean when they say clothes make a woman?" Kaga whistled as he took off her hat to confirm that it was her.

"What?"

Tsutui coughed. "I think what Kaga's trying to say is that quite different from before."

"Yeah kid, you're actually kinda cute for a damn brat."

"Er…thanks." She blushed a little. The last time anybody said that, other than Sai, it was probably the day she was born.

"Looks aside what was the deal with Touya calling you Sakimori before?"

"Oh about that, well…" She recounted to them her previous double encounter with Touya Akira and her latest attempt at ditching him.

"So you're telling me that THE Touya Akira is waiting outside the men's bathroom for someone who doesn't even exit?" Kaga bellowed. "Ha! Good one kid."

"Kaga, inside voice."

"We're outside idiot."

The trio left the Kaio school grounds in high spirits. Even though they were disqualified from the tournament, they still technically did the impossible and defeated Kaio. Kaga casually took out a cigarette and lit it as they walked with Tsutui coughing in an exaggerated way in a disapproving manner.

"Hey kid, what do you plan on doing now?"

"Well…I was thinking about going to buy a magnetic board…"

"You can do that later. Let's go out for a celebratory lunch."

"Seriously?! Ne, ne, can we get ramen?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Awesome!" In her excitement Hikaru bursted off and ran ahead of them.

The two watched the girl in amusement as they slowly followed her, making no attempt to catch up.

"Next year's our last year." Kaga said calmly as he blew out smoke. "So we've got to go all out and make it memorable."

"Yeah. We'll beat Kaio again next year."

They both looked over at the girl who turned hyperactive upon the prospect of free food.

"With that kid around I'm sure next year'll be an interesting year."

Tsutui nodded and smiled in agreement, but then suddenly stopped dead in his tracks as he remembered something.

Kaga, having noticed Tsutui being rooted to the spot halted in his steps and turned to his companion. "Hm? What's wrong?"

"Kaga…Did you realise that you just offered food to the 'Couponed Black Hole Monster?'"

His cigarette dropped out of his mouth. "Damn!" he spat.


End file.
